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The Connecticut Tumor Registry, the longest-operating population-based cancer registry in the U.S., has been a vital source of cancer information for the past 60 years. A recent trend analysis revealed an emerging vulnerability for melanoma among men.
The reviewers examined trends from 1950 to 2007 in the incidence of invasive melanoma and in situ melanoma, mortality, and the mortality-incidence ratio among 19,973 Connecticut residents diagnosed with invasive melanoma and 3635 with melanoma-related deaths. A diagnosis of invasive melanoma was rare from 1950 to 1954: 1.9 per 100,000 in men and 2.6 per 100,000 in women. By 2007, overall incidence rates had risen more than 17-fold in men (to 33.5 per 100,000) and more than 9-fold in women (to 25.3 per 100,000). In men older than 50, rates increased more than 20-fold, with a 45-fold increase in men aged 65 to 69. From 1950 to 2007, the rate of melanoma-related mortality tripled in men and doubled in women.
Geller AC et al. Melanoma epidemic: An analysis of six decades of data from the Connecticut Tumor Registry. J Clin Oncol 2013 Nov 20; 31:4172. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2012.47.3728)
Comment
The most compelling findings in this study are the greater than 20-fold increase in melanoma incidence and the tripling of related mortality in men. In men older than 70, 1 death occurs for every 5 melanoma cases versus 1 death per 14 melanoma cases in men aged 45 to 49. Trends to higher rates were also noted among women, but not to the same extent, which resonates with my personal clinical experience. Even though thick melanomas are less common these days, bulky melanomas seem to occur most often on the sun-damaged head and neck areas of older men.