Worldwide Incidence of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma

Posted on by Abbie Shortt

Because the incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) was reported to increase with increasing terrestrial UVR (290–400 nm) doses in the US back in 1975 and a recent publication showed no association exists with UVR exposure at all, we set out to fully elucidate the role of UVR in CMM. To achieve this goal, we analyzed the CMM incidences over latitude and estimated the average personal UVR dose in the US and numerous countries (> 50) on 5 continents around the world. Using data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2005, we performed worldwide analysis of CMM over UVR dose by sex, age group (0–14, 15–29, 30–49, 50–69, 70–85+) and Fitzpatrick skin types I-VI. Surprisingly, increasing UVR doses, which represent erythemally-weighted doses comprised primarily of UVB (290–315 nm) radiation, did not significantly correlate with increasing CMM incidence for people with any skin type anywhere in the world. Paradoxically, we found significant correlations between increasing CMM and decreasing UVB dose in Europeans with skin types I-IV.

Click here to download the full paper

Source: Journal – Dermato-Endocrinology

Authors: Dianne E. Godar, Madhan Subramanian & Stephen J. Merrill

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One comment on “Worldwide Incidence of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma”

  1. I did a skin check on a lady recently who said she had a superficial MM in past. I found the report which said a regressive level 11 melanoma cannot be entirely excluded, but diagnosis was melanoma insitu. A wider excision was done for a superficial MM but should it have treated as a level 11 for safety?

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