More skin, more sun, more tan, more melanoma

Abstract

Although personal melanoma risk factors are well established, the contribution of socioeconomic factors, including clothing styles, social norms, medical paradigms, perceptions of tanned skin, economic trends, and travel patterns, to melanoma incidence has not been fully explored. We analyzed artwork, advertisements, fashion trends, and data regarding leisure-time activities to estimate historical changes in UV skin exposure. We used data from national cancer registries to compare melanoma incidence rates with estimated skin exposure and found that they rose in parallel. Although firm conclusions about melanoma causation cannot be made in an analysis such as this, we provide a cross-disciplinary, historical framework in which to consider public health and educational measures that may ultimately help reverse melanoma incidence trends.

FIGURE 1—

Age-adjusted melanoma incidence rates with estimated swimwear skin exposure calculated with the rules of nines in (a) women and (b) men. Note. Swimwear skin exposure is based on a review of bathing suit styles as seen in Sears catalogs. A postexposure lag time of 50–60 years was chosen because this reflects the average age at melanoma diagnosis in different decades as described in the Connecticut Tumor Registry and the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) national cancer registries. Source. Geller et al.