Leading oncologists are warning of a skin cancer epidemic where young women are particularly at risk
The incidence and death rates of malignant melanoma - the deadliest skin cancer - are inexorably rising. You can call it, for want of a better word, an epidemic,' says Richard Marais, professor of molecular oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research in London.
We know cigarette smoke is a carcinogen. The World Health Organisation puts ultraviolet radiation from the sun in the same category. When people are sold a "healthy tan", either from burning in the sun or on a sunbed, they should know they are being sold a carcinogen.'
His deep concern and that of Dr James Larkin, consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, is that the message 'Don't burn' is still failing to get through.
The cultural yearning for a tan is deeply ingrained in a country where the first dose of summer sunshine triggers an immediate rifle through the bikini drawer.
Young women are at particular risk. 'There is an unusually young age distribution for an adult cancer.
Melanoma is vastly overrepresented in young people, especially women,' says Dr Larkin. 'I strongly believe that if people could visit the clinic I run and see people dying of melanoma, it would begin to change our behaviour.'
Awareness of skin cancer is lower than many of the other major cancers,' says Prof Marais. 'The problem is that the primary lesions may be irritating or unsightly but generally speaking they don't cause any trouble.
