Despite fears of a surge of cancers in young people, at least one form of the disease appears to be on the decline among the under-50s.
WHAT IS THE DEADLY SKIN CANCER AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE?
Rates of deadly skin cancer are rapidly falling in young people, according to a new major study involving 90,000 people.
It bucks a concerning trend of increasing rates of some types of the disease, specificially breast, lung and bowel.
Over the last two decades the number of under 50 year-old Brits diagnosed with bowel cancer has risen by 24 per cent.
In the new study, experts from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden analysed national data tracking cases of the most serious type of skin cancer melanoma, which is mainly caused by overexposure to UV radiation from the sun, over time.
Tracking data in both men and women from 1990 to 2022, they found that from 2015, cancer rates declined significantly in the under 50s — particularly in women.
The biggest change was among 20-to-29-year-olds and 30-to-39-year-olds, who saw declines in incidents rates of the disease of up to five per cent.
By the end of the study rates of melanoma had declined to 18 cases per 100,000 women and 10 cases per 100,000 men, declines of 5.2 per cent and three per cent respectively.
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For 20-to-29-year-old women, data showed a decrease of 5.2 per cent to seven cases per 100,000 while men remained stable at threes cases per 100,000.
HOW MELONAMA WORKS
Melanoma rates in the 40-to-49-year-olds didn’t decrease dramatically but were noted to level off from 2015 onwards.
For young people below the age of 20, a demographic which included children, rates didn’t change but the authors noted cases were rare throughout at less than one case per 100,000 population.
In contrast, the study published in the journal JAMA Dermatology, found rates of the disease in general increased among the over 50s during the same period.
