Melanoma overdiagnosis may be common in US white men, women

Source: Healio, March 2022

Trends in melanoma diagnosis and mortality suggest that white individuals in the United States were over-diagnosed with the disease, according to a study.

“The rate of melanoma diagnosis has increased sixfold over the past 40 years, yet melanoma mortality has remained relatively stable,” Adewole S. Adamson, MD, MPP, assistant professor in the division of dermatology in the department of internal medicine at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas, Austin, told Healio. “These epidemiologic features are concerning for overdiagnosis, which is the diagnosis of cancer that would never have caused any symptoms or problems in a patient’s lifetime.”

Adamson added that melanoma overdiagnosis had not previously been estimated in the U.S.

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