The Promising Yet Scary News About Melanoma
We’ll begin with the hopeful news: Researchers predict that the death rates from malignant melanoma — the most serious type of skin cancer — will decrease by the year 2050.
The investigators who presented information on Saturday during the European Cancer Congress 2017 in Amsterdam stated the rates in the U.S. are expected to be 2 1/2 to three times lower from its peak years (1995 to 2005). For women, the rates should fall from 1.7 to less than one per 100,000 women; for men, the rates will drop from four to 1.6 per every 100,000 men.
However, due to the aging population, the study authors also foresee more people passing away from this disease over the next 18 years — specifically through the years 2030 and 2035. In fact, adults born before 1960 are at the highest risk of dying from melanoma since the medical community was mostly unaware during this time of the harmful effects caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
“The good news is that the risk declines rapidly as skin protection increases, and that effective treatments are starting to be available,” stated Alice Koechlin, from the International Prevention Research Institute in Lyon, France, in a press release. “But we still have a long way to go before we will have affordable therapies able to prolong survival from advanced melanoma by several years with a decent quality of life.”
While melanoma accounts for only 1 percent of skin cancers, it causes a majority of skin cancer deaths, according to statistics from the American Cancer Society.
The organization adds that even though the average patient is diagnosed with melanoma at the age of 63, this disease is one of the most common cancers in young adults — especially with younger women. The Aim at Melanoma Foundation states that 25 percent of people under 45 years of age suffer from melanoma, and that it is the third most common cancer among women ages 20-39.
“The authors predict, based on a set of computer simulations, that the rate of melanoma deaths will decline over time, and they think this will happen due to improved ultraviolet radiation safety,” Mark Faries, MD, surgical oncologist and director of the Donald L. Morton, MD, Melanoma Research Program at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., tells Yahoo Beauty. “I think they may be a bit optimistic in terms of public awareness and behavior with regard to the sun.”
Faries points out that “too many people” continue to tan both outdoors and indoors despite their knowledge of the dangers. “Continued advocacy and public awareness campaigns will be needed for other countries to equal the progress that has been made in Australia on this front,” he adds.
And while melanoma (which can be found anywhere on the body, yet usually develops in the areas that are exposed to the sun, including the face, arms, legs, and back) can be cured with surgery when it’s detected in the early stages, this skin cancer is difficult to treat when a patient is diagnosed at a more advanced stage.
“The last few years, though, have brought a large number of advances in the treatment of more advanced melanomas,” continues Faries. “This means the potential survival benefit the authors of that study envision may be very realistic. It is possible we’ll do even better than that in the next 30 years—so the revolution in treatment, leading to decreased mortality, has already begun.”
Related: Melanoma Rates Are on the Rise, New Data Shows
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