US melanoma rates are rising faster for women than for men — indoor tanning may explain why

Source: Business Insider, February 2016

Indoor tanning may explain why U.S. melanoma rates are rising faster for women than for men, according to new research.

In a study of people under age 50 with melanoma – the deadliest skin cancer – the women who had tanned indoors were six times more likely than those who did not to have the cancer diagnosed before age 30.

That result is similar to those of an Australian study in 2011, said lead author of the new paper, DeAnn Lazovich of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. But the previous study did not separate men and women, she said by email.

“That almost all of the risk of melanoma related to indoor tanning was among women was surprising, as was the very strong association among the youngest women,” Lazovich said of her study’s results.