Developing melanoma epidemic among Latinos

There is an alarming new trend in California. Latinos were once thought to be immune to melanoma because of their skin pigmentation, but the number of skin cancer cases in Californian hispanics is growing by about 7% a year.

MercuryNews.com | 01/24/2006 | Latino melanoma rate rising rapidly in state

California is experiencing a "developing epidemic" of melanoma among Latinos, according to a study released Monday by researchers at the University of Southern California.

The researchers are alarmed because the greatest increase is in the rate of so-called "thick'' tumors, which are more likely to be lethal, according to a report in the journal Cancer.

The number of total melanoma cases among Latinos is small -- about 200 new cases a year and about 50 deaths, said epidemiologist Myles G. Cockburn of USC's Keck School of Medicine.

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Physicians must be aggressive in targeting prevention programs at Latinos, who account for about a third of the state's population, Cockburn said. "There is no reason for anyone to die from this.''

The USC study focused on California because of its 12 million Latino residents and accurate cancer registries. Cockburn said the results should hold for the rest of the country as well.

Melanoma incidence has been growing among all groups over the past 20 years at least, in large part because of increased exposure to the sun through outdoor recreation.

Cockburn and his colleagues studied all melanoma cases among Latino-surnamed Californians from 1988 through 2001. The disease accounted for 1.2 percent of male cancers and 1.6 percent of female cancers among Latinos.