While the overall incidence of melanoma seems to be on the rise, there was a significant lowering in the rate of melanoma in among adolescents (10–19 years of age) and young adults (20–29 years of age). Using registry data, these authors evaluated 988,103 cases of invasive melanoma and found that, the overall incidence of melanoma increased from 200 to 229 cases per million person-years from 2006 to 2015, respectively. However over the same period the incidence among adolescents (10–19 years of age) and young adults (20–29 years of age) significantly declined. Incidence rates of melanoma decreased by an annual percentage change of −3.6% to −5.4% in both males and females in these age ranges. The declining incidence of melanoma among adolescents and young adults may be a result of the efforts promoting sun protective interventions and that messaging having a real impact on the behavior of the younger generation. Lets hope the trend continues!

Age-Specific Incidence of Melanoma in the United States

JAMA Dermatol 2019 Nov 13;[EPub Ahead of Print], KG Paulson, D Gupta, TS Kim, JR Veatch, DR Byrd, S Bhatia, K Wojcik, AG Chapuis, JA Thompson, MM Madeleine, JM Gardner