Moles

Scheduling a yearly skin examination with
HAIKEN DERMATOLOGY
may help you recognize that your moles are changing:

• From 1970 to 2009, the incidence of melanoma increased by 800 percent among young women and 400 percent among young men.
• One person dies of melanoma every hour (every 57 minutes).
• Melanoma accounts for less than five percent of skin cancer cases, but the vast majority of skin cancer deaths.
• An estimated 76,250 new cases of invasive melanoma will be diagnosed in the US in 2012, with 9,180 estimated to result in death.
• Of the seven most common cancers in the US, melanoma is the only one whose incidence is increasing. Between 2000 and 2009, incidence climbed 1.9 percent annually.
• 1 in 50 men and women will be diagnosed with melanoma of the skin during their lifetime.
• About 86 percent of melanomas can be attributed to exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.
• Melanoma is one of only three cancers with an increasing mortality rate for men, along with liver cancer and esophageal cancer.
• Survivors of melanoma are about nine times as likely as the general population to develop a new melanoma.
• The vast majority of mutations found in melanoma are caused by ultraviolet radiation.
• Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25-29 years old and the second most common form of cancer for young people 15-29 years old.
• The overall 5-year survival rate for patients whose melanoma is detected early, before the tumor has spread to regional lymph nodes or other organs, is about 98 percent in the US. The survival rate falls to 62 percent when the disease reaches the lymph nodes, and 15 percent when the disease metastasizes to distant organs.
• A person’s risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns at any age.19
• One or more blistering sunburns in childhood or adolescence more than double a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life.
• An estimated 44,250 new cases of invasive melanoma in men and 32,000 in women will be diagnosed in the US in 2012.
• An estimated 6,060 men and 3,120 women in the US will die from melanoma in 2012.2
• One in 36 men and one in 55 women will develop melanoma in their lifetimes.
• Women aged 39 and under have a higher probability of developing melanoma than any other cancer except breast cancer.2

References

• Howlader N, Noone AM, Krapcho M, et al (eds). SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2009 (Vintage 2009 Populations). Bethesa, MD: National Cancer Institute; http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2009_pops09/; Accessed August 22, 2012.
• Ries LAG, Melbert D, Krapcho M, et al. (eds). SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2004. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute; http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2004/. Accessed January 24, 2011.
• Parkin DM, Mesher D, P Sasieni. Cancers attributable to solar (ultraviolet) radiation exposure in the UK in 2010. Br J Cancer. 2011; 105:566-569.
• Ahmedin J, Siegel R, Xu J, Ward E. Cancer Statistics, 2010. CA Cancer J Clin2010; 60:288-296
• Bradford PT, Freedman DM, Goldstein AM, Tucker MA. Increased risk of secondary primary cancers after a diagnosis of melanoma. Arch Dermatol2010; 146(3):265-272.
• Pleasance ED, Cheetham RK, Stephens PJ, et al. A comprehensive catalogue of somatic mutations from a human cancer genome. Nature 2009; 463:191-196.
• Bleyer A, O’Leary M, Barr R, Ries LAG (eds): Cancer epidemiology in older adolescents and young adults 15 to 29 years of age, including SEER incidence and survival: 1975-2000. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute; 2006.
• Felton R. Introduction to FDA’s regulation and classification of tanning lamps. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/
• CommitteesMeetingMaterials/MedicalDevices/MedicalDevicesAdvisory
• Committee/GeneralandPlasticSurgeryDevicesPanel/UCM211206.pdf. Accessed Sept 3, 2012.
• Pfahlberg A, Kolmel KF, Gefeller O. Timing of excessive ultraviolet radiation and melanoma: epidemiology does not support the existence of a critical period of high susceptibility to solar ultraviolet radiation-induced melanoma.Brit J Dermatol March 2001; 144:3:471.
• Lew RA, Sober AJ, Cook N, Marvell R, Fitzpatrick TB. Sun exposure habits in patients with cutaneous melanoma: a case study. J Dermatol Surg Onc 1983; 12:981-6.