Melanoma rates have been steadily declining among younger generations over the past two decades, according to a study published Nov. 15 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
Researchers from Omaha-based University of Nebraska Medical Center, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Omaha, Neb.-based Creighton University, Salt Lake City-based University of Utah and Omaha-based Children's Nebraska, used National Childhood Cancer Registry data from between 1997 and 2020 to analyze melanoma incidence in 1,243 pediatric and 74,865 adolescent and young adult patients.
Here are five things to know from the study:
- For the study, pediatric patients were defined as age 0-14, and adolescent and young adult patients were defined as age 15-39.
- Over the study period, the melanoma incidence rate for pediatric patients was 1.74 per million-person-years and 62.05 per million-person-years for adolescent and young adult patients.
- For children ages 10 to 14 years, melanoma incidence began significantly decreasing in 2001.
- For children ages 5 to 9 years, melanoma incidence increased annually until 2014, when it began significantly decreasing.
- Among adolescent and young adult patients, melanoma incidence increased annually and peaked between 2003 and 2005, at which point it began steadily decreasing.
Read the full study here.