The Dark Side of the Sun

By Om Dixon

Summer means longer, warmer days and more time spent outdoors. With
those pleasures, unfortunately, comes an increased risk of skin cancer.
The American Academy of Dermatology
predicts that American physicians will diagnose nearly a million cases
of skin cancer this year, with the most serious type, malignant
melanoma, expected to kill over 7,500 people. That means that the
incidence of malignant melanoma is increasing at a greater rate than
any other cancer, and translates into one American dying every hour
from the disease.

"Everybody sensed the risk was rising rapidly, but seeing the
numbers is a little frightening," says Dr. Darrell Rigel, associate
professor of dermatology at New York University Medical School.

A report Rigel delivered to the Academy of Dermatology, based on
data from hospital tumor registries nationwide, offers the most
comprehensive analysis of just how common the disease has become. In
1930, the risk of developing melanoma for Americans was just 1 in
1,500. That rose to 1 in 250 by 1980. If current rates continue, Rigel
says, by the year 2000 the lifetime risk will be 1 in 75.

Doctors have warned for years about the rising rate of
melanoma. It is the fifth most common cancer in the United
States -- behind lung, breast, colon, and prostate cancers. "There's a
delay of 10 to 20 years from the time of damage by exposure to the sun
to the time we see melanomas, so the increases we're seeing today are
due to what people did in the 1970s and '80s," says Rigel. "We're
hoping as people become more aware we'll see those rates begin to level
off." Although 80 to 90 percent of the sun-related damage that can lead
to melanoma occurs prior to age 18, the peak age for developing the
disease is 45 to 60.