Melanoma is a leading cause of cancer death in the United States. The lifetime risk for dying of melanoma is 0.36% in white men and 0.21% in white women (3). Between 1973 and 1995, the age-adjusted incidence of melanoma increased more than 100%, from 5.7 per 100,000 people to 13.3 per 100,000 people.
The increase in annual incidence rates is likely due to several factors, including increased sun exposure and possibly earlier detection of melanoma. Although primary prevention efforts have focused on young people, the elderly (especially elderly men) bear a disproportionate burden of morbidity and mortality from melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer.
Men older than age 65 account for 22% of the newly diagnosed cases of malignant melanoma each year and women in the same age group account for 14%. Basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas are more than 10 times as common as melanoma but account for less morbidity and mortality. Squamous cell cancers, however, may account for 20% of all deaths from skin cancer.
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