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Subscribe to RSSIn the past four decades, the incidence of melanoma has increased eight-fold among women ages 18 – 39.
By Joyce Ho, Stacey Naggiar, and Dr. Nancy Snyderman
NBC News
Growing up in Lakewood, Colo., Jodi Duke was like most high school girls her age -- eager for the beautiful bronze skin so often popularized in the media.
“I think there's a lot of peer pressure,” said Duke. “You look in magazines, you look on TV, people are not pale ... and that, coupled with the peer pressure at school, I think leads to behavior that you seek out how to make yourself look different.”
She found indoor tanning beds the best quick fix to get the glow she wanted and developed a habit of visiting the salon once a week. Before she knew it, was going twice a week and eventually, every day.
At age 19, after a year of daily tanning, Duke was diagnosed with melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer.
“I think I was kind of in a state of shock,” said Duke, who is now 36. “I don’t remember a lot about that day except going in the bathroom and just crying.”
Duke is not alone. A new study published Monday in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings found the incidence of melanoma in young adults is soaring, with a six-fold increase in the past 40 years. The rise is particularly noteworthy in young females aged 18 to 39, where the incidence of melanoma increased eight-fold from 1970 to 2009, and four-fold in young adult males.
Tanning beds to blame?
Although the study didn’t examine why the numbers have increased, the researchers say gender-specific behaviors such as tanning -- a popular activity among young women -- may be behind this alarming trend.
“The number one thing – stop going to go tanning beds,” said dermatologist Dr. Jerry Brewer, one of the study’s authors. “All correlations point towards that as the reason for the increase.”
For Duke, who said she always knew in the back of her mind that tanning was unhealthy, receiving a melanoma diagnosis was a wake-up call.
Melanoma survivor Jodi Duke discusses her disease, treatment and the measures she takes to keep herself and her daughters safe in the sun.
“When I got this diagnosis I just knew,” she said. “And I never went back to another tanning bed.”
In response to Brewer’s study, the Indoor Tanning Association released a statement saying, “The authors attempt to make indoor tanning the story while ignoring other more likely risk factors such as heredity, sunburning outdoors and more frequent travel to sunny vacation locations over the last decade where severe sunburns are more likely to occur.”
The organization also pointed out that the population studied is not a representative sample of America. Minnesota, where the research was conducted, has a disproportionately high number of fair-skinned individuals who have higher risk for melanoma. More than 250 young adults, all of whom lived in Olmstead County, participated in the study where they were tracked for four decades as part of the Rochester Epidemiology Project.
The study authors acknowledged the demographic and socioeconomic makeup of the study population as a potential limitation to their findings.
Mortality rates decreasing
The findings were not all negative, however. Researchers found that although the incidence of melanoma is rising among young people, the mortality rates are actually decreasing. Brewer said that these better survival rates are most likely attributable to advances in early detection and awareness of changing moles.
According to Brewer, the important message to take away from the study is that young people can get cancer, and they’re not as invincible as they think. In fact, another study published in the journal “Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention,” found that people who have used tanning beds are 74 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who have not.
Warning signs
According to dermatologist Dr. Robert Dellavalle from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, individuals with blue or green eyes, freckles, moles, or red hair are at higher risk for development of melanomas. Asians and those with darker skin have a lower risk, but may find themselves with more aggressive diagnoses when melanoma is found.
Experts caution that everyone should use SPF to protect themselves from sun damage. Those with several risk factors for melanoma should exercise careful sun protection and supplement their diets with Vitamin D, the major nutrient we normally receive from sunlight.
After surgery at age 19 to remove a large portion of her arm and 48 weeks of immunotherapy treatment, Duke has now been cancer free for many years. In Aurora, Colorado, she now teaches her young daughters about the importance of sunscreen, and the scar on her arm is a constant reminder to them of what could happen without proper skin protection.
“If i had to go back I think that one of the obvious answers is that I wouldn't ever tan,” said Duke. “And I would tell myself, ‘You look great the way you are.’”
NBC’s Wonbo Woo contributed to this report.
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They give off alpha and beta particles, the very two particles that enter the skin but have not enough penetrating power to exit the body. In other words one of the worst situations for biological effects, radiation that does not leave the body. You can count on the TSA for more Leukemia events from those scanners too, guess who cares? That would be nobody.
I still think it's from all the tanning beds.
Another flawed study on people that are NOT representative of the American population and demographics. However, tanning beds are purely bad news - always.
No it's not alpha and beta particles. It's UV light. Although all three will ionize the atoms in the dna in your skin and give you cancer regardless.
Scary stuff. And insurance isn't helping. I have UNITED HEALTH CARE and have been trying for WEEKS to get in to see a network dermatologist due to a mole that has become a bleeding sore. Even though there are, literally, a hundred or more dermatologists within ten miles of me, I cannot get an appointment until at least July. No openings, not taking new patients, etc. What good is insurance when you can't get in to use it???????
tanainkc, I agree that health insurance actually keeps people from seeing the doctors. Call the office every few days to see if there is a cancellation, ask them to call you right away if there is a cancellation. I had the same problem with a knee injury and actually got a cancellation appointment 2 months early because I was willing to go any time and any day. Good luck to you.
@tanainkc Just wondering but have you been having any almost crippling pain in your body?
And tanning beds arn't just to blame for that. To much time in the sun can hit you with a skin cancer too
Many reasons. But are you saying tanning everyday for a year shouldn't be blamed because there are other reasons? Send a kid in your family to do the same, and then I will believe you believe what you say!
This is because the stupid idiots are so concerned about being perfectly tanned, they don't care when they go to the beach or the tanning bed (a.k.a. cancer coffin), as long as they look more tan than the next lady. Then, because of their ignorance and stupidity, they wonder why they get skin cancer later in life and look like a prune by the time they are 60.
Going inside a coffin, to be cooked. Sounds safe to me!!!
@tanainkc: With a bleeding mole stop complaining about your insurance - it is what it is. Your life is at stake. Suck it up and pay the $250 to see one of the "hundred or more" dermatologists that are close to you immediately. Or go to an emergency room and sit and be prepared to sit and wait. But do it.
Sounds like the Indoor Tanning Association has the same spokesperson the tobacco industry had years ago. If it's other factors then why are they saying young girls and not everyone?
tanainkc I do not mean to scare you but I am going to be honest with you!! Do not wait, call the Drs back and tell them the mole is bleeding. Here is the part I told you I would be honest. My sister died july 13th 2010 at 34 yrs old of Melanoma cancer, it started on her thigh. High at a point that was never exposed to sun, she never went to a tanning bed 1 day of her life. She thought it was a mole and then it got bigger and started to open up and bleed, by the time she got a dr to help her (she had no insurance) she found out when it was removed it was in fact cancer, she was a stage 3 cause it moved into her lymp nodes of her groin. When they removed the nodes, 17 of 21 had cancer, she went through chemo, went into remission, 1 year later back in arm pit in a node, that was in aug 2009 she died july 2010. do not take that lightly, do not take no for an answer, become a complete @!$%# if you have to, you have a right to be seen asap. call your family dr she should be able to rush the matter. DO NOT SIT BACK AND WAIT FOR OTHERS!!!!!!!! It is a fact, my sister would be alive today, but a dr told her, it should be removed but told her it would cost 1200.00 she didnt have the money, he sent her away to save the money, by the time she saved 1200.00, 3 months later, it was basically to late. Every day counts if you have cancer.
Get Kaiser. I never wait for an appoitment.
It's pretty scary, all the local tanning salons have "student specials", catering to the local high school population. You always see girls heading in the salons with their "all you can tan" cards. The girls are bronzed in the middle of January (in the Chicago area). Even hair salons have seen the dollar signs and started installing tanning beds, catering to high school and college aged girls. I almost want to scream at them that when they get to my age (41), they are going to look like prunes or tanned cow hides. I tanned/burned occasionally as a kid at summer camp, but stayed out of the sun for the most part after 16, after developing an "allergy" to extended sun exposure after a bad burn. I have some small dark spots showing up on my face, so it really does not take much sun to get you later on in life.
Those "small dark spots" are commonly referred to as "age spots". It happens...get over it. If you don't like them, or they bother you to the point they make you selfconcious, then get some cosmetic surgery to ease their appearance, or slather on the makeup.
For the record, I have NEVER been to a tanning salon, nor do I intend to visit one.
Uh...I was just making a point that it does not take much sun in one's youth to get those signs of aging, can you imagine what is in store for those spending their days in the tanning beds...About the age spots, I could really care less...seems like you are more obsessed about it than me....
trinity1984, you are absolutely correct that it does not take much sun to cause problems later in life...those 'age spots' are more accurately referred to as 'sun spots', as they develop from damage to the skin from sun exposure. This is not something to simply 'get over'... as I'm sure you know, the best way to prevent further damage is to stay out of the sun (or tanning beds) or slather on the sunscreen. :-)
I have an olive skin-tone. Tanned with little effort growing up and I've never been to a tanning bed, why would I need to? I'm now in my 40's and my 'age/sun spots' are appearing. Irritating as hell. Now I'm a fanatic about sunscreen. What's funny...though I wear SPF 30 daily and SPF 50 when outside for extended periods, I still tan. I don't try.
In regards to society preferring tanned skin. I always thought the ivory skin-tone to be really beautiful. It wouldn't have worked for me though. I look green without any sun. Now I just use make up to achieve that though.
Well, at least you don't have to dress up for Halloween! Just go as a Marcian each year. Just kidding. I am sure you look great, olive skin and all.
HA! Love it. Maybe. Or a witch. ;)
People are going to do what they want. You tell them X is bad for you, they'll do X twice a week.
Everyone knows drinking and driving is not a good thing to do, but people routinely do it. Tanning...same thing. I tell young women it is terrible to do...they don't listen. They can get cancer for all I care. At least tanning only damages yourself, not another person....unless you count a pallbearer who throws out his back lifting your casket.
Uh, not the "same thing". Drunk driving happens when people make the decision to drive while in a drunken state. That is, the decision is made, by definition, in an impaired state. I don't know of many people sitting drunk some place and all of a sudden deciding to go to a tanning salon.
And a caring guy you are. "They can get cancer" because they didn't listen to what YOU told them?
william - the same can be said for smoking.
William you think only women go to these salons? Ever heard of the Jersey Shore?
Honestly, we really need a big "duh" here. First, tanning as a whole has risen. There are more tanning products on the market than ever before to accelerate the tan. We are damaging our ozone, letting in even more harmful rays. Tanning beds are not completely harmless, and frankly people are wearing less. And with the rise of education on skin cancer, you'd think people would care... but honestly they prefer to be tan and deal with cancer later. It's no surprise.
They should ban tanning beds. They have no beneficial effects. They just play to people's vanities.
And how many of them would be complaining about the government interfering with their 'rights'? What happened when the government banned alcohol? It only made matters worse. Can you imagine organized crime getting into supplying tanning beds? How about police raids of tanning parlors? I guess we will just have to let people make their own decisions....... then listen to them complain after they get those wrinkles and ages spots and moles and skin cancer.
The article makes the point that survival from melanoma, once considered a death sentence, is improving, but it is not walk in the park. At the very least there is surgery, varying from a relatively small excision of skin and underlying tissue, to a major removal of skin and tissue and an ugly scar. Then there is long-term follow-up to detect any return or spread from the original site.
It would have been interesting if the article included the cost of treatment, which is very hard to ascertain. But, we wonder why health care costs are so high......... this is one of the reasons. The article should also include warning signs: a 'mole' or spot that is various colors, often black, sometime more than one color, with irregular shape and larger than a pencil eraser, to name a few. If you have one, or just a mole that does not look right, get to a dermatologist ASAP! Look on Wikipedia for illustrations of melanoma compared to non-cancerous skin lesions.
They should ban smoking too. But, we all corporate interests will always stop that.
I got melanoma about 20 years ago. I look like I was worked over by Zorro. I really wish I had stayed out of the sun. We thought it was so cool, and it left us looking like dry leather.
A very elderly aunt was obsessed with tanning most of her adult life.
Since my childhood, I always thought she looked like a weathered old boot.
Kept me cautious about too much sun.
haha wow, all this cancer just to look more "bronze"
I just hope people aren't surprised tanning beds cause cancer
My daughters and I met two women by chance who were fresh from tanning beds. Their skin wasn't tan yet, it was ash gray. They explained the entire process to my daughters, who were young teens at the time. My girls have been very good about using sunscreen after that, and they would never use a tanning bed. That chance encounter was more effective than anything we parents could have told them.
You look really hot with that tan though baby, keep it up!
You ever see a 50 year old woman who sunbathed often when they were younger? They look like an alligator handbag.
I dont see why people would go such lengths to change their skin color. It doesnt look natural either way and you look like trash when you're older. Just embrace it and by happy that no outside group is pressuring you to be something you aren't... you are
The point is when you get a tan, people know you got a tan. Its not like dying your hair and someone meets you for the first time and just assumes you are naturally blonde. Wasting an hour of your life when you could spend it doing something fun.
When that report first came out that people using tanning beds are 74 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who have not, I said that was it...cancelled my tanning salon membership. But still wanted a tan! So I switched to spray tanning. Got a machine that lets me spray tan at home in my shower. Actually, it paid for itself in a few months, versus my tan bed membership. Just google "home spray tanning gadget" and check it out.
And I can see you look really young.
People think putting on a tan will make them look healthier and more athletic, all it does is make them age and look like leather meat bags.
I dated a beautiful blonde white girl in college; she got into the tanning craze and in one year she was so dark that when I saw her getting her bath ready I thought she was wearing white panties even though she had no bottoms on. This is how dark her skin had become in one year. She looked much much attractive before her addiction, if I had wanted a dark skinned girl I would have dated a girl of my own race.
Three years after we broke up she was diagonsed with skin cancer, 6 months after that she was dead.
Man, that's a really sad story. Too many young girls fall into the tanning thing...there are a lot of pretty young woman out there who are damaging their skin. What's worse, it seems like they don't even care.
This is what happens when society tell you what is pretty and what is not.
As a current patient, my doctor has repeatedly told me that Melanoma has nothing to do with the sun. I, too have never been a "tanner" or "sun worshipper". A lot of misinformation on this cancer. I get checked EVERYWHERE. I have had tumors removed from places where the "sun don't shine" as well as places it does. It can occur pretty much wherever there is skin and/or pigment cells. My retinae are also checked once a year as is the inside of my nose, inside my ears, between my toes, soles of my feet, rectum...... You get the picture. I have a few new ones, now and I've just been through the Winter, fully clothed. As to what the sun CAN cause: Basal cell and Squamous cell cancers. Melanoma? Strong family relationship (genetics). My sister also has had it. External causality is still unknown. Anything that appears on the skin after age 18 is suspect. Definitely worth having a doctor look at ya, especially if you have a blood relative who has or had it or any of the "big three".
Yoshi
Yoshi,
I recommend getting another doctor. Yours is an idiot.
I know 2 people who had melanoma where the sun don't shine - they weren't tanners either. Yoshi's doctor is right - melanoma is a different animal - it has nothing to do with exposure to sun.
Great story, but the accompanying picture is clearly that of a man.
It's Jodi, bending over-just because she has short hair it makes her look like a dude.
I have short hair, but that is a man's back. Just an observation . . .
Well, I wear a baseball cap (because of my hairloss problem) and long sleeve plaid shirts and long pants anyway. I've worked outside now for 7 years, and I haven't gotten one single burn.
Besides, sunscreen doesn't protect you from mosquito bites anyway.
My question is: were her parents the ones shelling out this weekly cash to get herself tanned when she could have just easily worn tank tops and shorts every day to get the same effect, or was she paying for it herself? Seems like a serious waste of cash to me...
You know why more white girls are getting melanoma? Its because skin-cancer Barbie doesn't sell.
My father would have been 88 today. He died 6 years ago of lung cancer but had skin cancer as well. He was fair, green eyed, and freckled. I never thought I was fair because I always tanned easily, never in a tanning bed. Now in my fifties, I am fair because I only get out in moderation. For the last two years, I have been fighting pre-cancerous patches on my face that I immediately recognized when they appeared. One comes up and I have it treated and another replaces it. I know a lot of kids don't care because I'm not sure I would have had anyone made a big deal about it with me. My father couldn't help the skin cancer because he was a tobacco farmer and got blistered many times. They didn't know about the ill effects of tobacco then either. We have the choice now that we know so please kids...it's not worth it!
Sun lotions , Sunscreens are Dangerous also... The Heath from the Sun opens your pores and the chemicals penetrate deeper into your skin....soon enough the Heath brings the chemicals inside your pores close to a Boil/ Fry. ..
These people who go to tanning salons will look like alligator handbags by the time they're 30. When my grandmother was young, the only people who had a tan were the less advantaged, farmers and others who had to work outside. It was desirable to have pale skin, the more pale, the better.
KatGurl66
You said it. Being of northern European ancestry, I have stayed out of the sun my entire life and now in my 50's I have no wrinkles.
There is no such thing as a safe tan. I have always thought it ironic that white folks feel superior to darker skinned folks yet put so much stock in getting darker skin.
I don't understand: the Sun-screen lotion industry makes over a billion dollars a year in sales? If we are all being protected, why so many cases of melanoma? The sun is not hotter than it was 100 years ago. There is something more to this!!! Our ancestors ate real food made by GOD/Nature. Not the GMO, man-made foods that is not recognized by our body as food but as POISON. The sun may react to this food at a bio-chemical level causing the GMO chemicals to latch onto our skin causing toxins, which leads to skin cancer. I'm sure Food, toxic water, and air pollution has something to do with it more than the sun and tanning beds.
The daughters are a reflection of their mothers. If mothers taught their daughters being spirtual rather than physical objects, this would not be an issue. I constantly hear women say "It is the style" to accept the exploitation of their daughters and to excuse their poor decisions.
Melanoma rates are soaring. They have been for years. It has to do with the exposure to the sun. But if it is happening to humans, could it be happening to animals too. I tell you sooo many animals spend sooo much time in the sun. Take the bee. The butterfly. The hawk.
Many say that animals exist so that they can be exploited by mankind. Others say animals just sort of live a life much as humans do. That humans should be to guardians of animals. They do many of the same things that humans do. Except they are dying off like crazy.
My father has had three melanomas and my sister one. And now my sister has had a Merkel cell carcinoma, deadlier than melanoma. This is serious stuff. Please take care, and don't hesitate to mention if you see something suspicious on someone else.
I love the sun. I wear short and tanks any time it is warm enough. Although, I don't lay around and bake in the sun, I definitely go outside and enjoy the sunshine. I wear sunscreen on my face all the time and all over when I will be out for long periods of time. By the way many people think that I am a good 10 years younger than I am.