Association of indoor tanning exposure with age at melanoma diagnosis and BRAF V600E mutations

Source: MDLinx, January 2020

Given the limited knowledge on how indoor tanning promotes melanoma development, researchers assessed indoor tanning use in patients with melanomas in sun-exposed skin, and analyzed the link between indoor tanning exposure and clinicopathological and molecular features. Participants were patients from a multidisciplinary clinic for cutaneous cancers. Younger age at diagnosis was observed in 114 patients who reported indoor tanning exposure vs 222 patients who did not. BRAF V600E genotype was found to be more prevalent in ever-users vs in nonusers and higher in ever-users who started indoor tanning before age 25?years vs age 25 years or older. Compared with nonusers, ever-users had more melanomas in intermittently sun-exposed skin. In this study, indoor tanning was suggested to be a possible promotor of melanomas originating in skin with low-chronic sun-induced damage through BRAF V600E-mediated melanomagenesis.