Tanning Salons Boost Skin Cancer Risk
Study Shows Monthly Use Raises Melanoma Risk by
55%
By Sid
Kirchheimer
Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD
on Thursday, October 16, 2003
WebMD Medical News
Oct. 16,
2003 -- There's more evidence on the hazards of tanning beds. Baking under their
artificial lamps as little as once a month can boost your risk of a deadly form
of skin cancer by 55% -- and the danger is even greater when done in early
adulthood.
A new study involving more than 106,000 Scandinavian women shows what its
researchers say is the strongest evidence to date that artificial tanning can
cause malignant melanoma.
Past research shows tanning beds raise risk of other types of skin cancer. Last
year, Dartmouth researchers reported that people who ever visited a tanning
salon were 2½ times more likely to later get squamous cell skin cancer and 1½
times more likely to develop basal cell skin than those who didn't.
When malignant melanoma is detected in its earliest stages, surgical removal
cures the cancer in most cases. If the disease spreads survival at 5 years after
the diagnosis is only about 30% to 40%. There are a number of factors that
increase the risk of melanoma -- a family history, prominent or unusual moles;
overexposure to ultraviolet radiation in sunlight is believed to contribute to
melanoma in some cases.
For this study, published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute, the Swedish and Norwegian women completed detailed questionnaires in
1991 and 1992 about personal characteristics such as their hair and eye color,
the number of moles on their body, and their histories of sunburn and tanning
patterns -- whether under natural sunlight or in tanning salons. Researchers
tracked their rates of melanoma eight years later and found 187 cases of
melanoma.
They find that eye color was not associated with increased risk. "We also found
no statistically significant association between tanning of the skin after heavy
or repeated sun exposure and the risk of melanoma," write researcher Marit
Veierod and colleagues.
But no matter the women's age or hair color -- considered by some to be
predictors of later melanoma risk -- the researcher say that women who visited a
tanning parlor at least once a month were 55% more likely to later develop
melanoma than women who didn't artificially suntan. Those who used sun lamps to
tan while in their 20s had the greatest later risk, about 150% higher than
similarly aged women who shunned tanning beds.
The risk
from melanoma from sun exposure was four times greater in red-haired women, who
are typically fair-skinned compared with women with dark brown or black hair.
Blondes had twice the risk compared with women with brown or black hair.
These new findings are important, because it's hard to study what specific
factors increases the risks of melanoma and other types of skin cancer. Because
mice don't get these forms, researchers must rely on these types of population
studies that track lifestyle habits and later disease rates, says James Spencer,
MD, spokesman for the American Academy of Dermatology and vice chairman of
dermatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He was not involved in this
study.
"In a way, it's confirming the obvious," he tells WebMD. "We know that
ultraviolet light from the sun causes skin cancer, and we presumed that
ultraviolet light from tanning salons also causes skin cancer, although there's
no direct experimental way to show that."
But he says he's surprised by the risk noted in women who artificially tanned.
"We knew artificial tanning was bad, but it's worse than we thought. This is a
large, powerful study and I think what it does is confirm what we suspected."
But Indoor Tanning Association spokesman Joseph Levy says the new findings don't
apply to Americans.
"We don't know anything specifically about how or where this tanning equipment
was used," he tells WebMD. "Indoor tanning in Scandinavia is not regulated like
it is here. They don't have exposure schedules or the same type of equipment.
You're talking about a fair-skinned population that has a different mentality --
they are sun worshippers."
So does he think that tanning beds are safe?
"Being safe implies that you can do something recklessly and not think about
what you are doing to maximize benefits and minimize risks," says Levy. "We want
people to think about what they're doing when tanning, as opposed to just saying
'safe.'"
Last month, the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine reported that in a
survey of 7,000 teenagers, one in three girls and 11% of boys say they had used
an indoor tanning bed at least once in their life.
"If you're a tennis player or boater, at least your can go outside and enjoy
yourself," says Spencer. "You can wear sunscreen and a hat and get exercise. But
when you go to a tanning salon, you're lying in coffin-like device and not
enjoying life. It's just dumb."
SOURCES: Veierod, M. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Oct. 15,
2003; vol 95: pp 1530-1538. Demko, C. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent
Medicine, September 2003; vol 157: pp 854-860. American Academy of Dermatology.
James Spencer, MD, vice chairman, department of dermatology, Mount Sinai School
of Medicine; director, dermatologic surgery, Mount Sinai-NYU Medical Center and
Health System, New York City; spokesman, American Academy of Dermatology. Joseph
Levy, spokesman, Indoor Tanning Association, Jackson, Miss.