VANCOUVER, B.C. — Two new
studies presented at the Sixth World Congress on Melanoma have
linked tanning bed use and melanoma.
“The year 2005 sees the
first real, indisputable evidence that tanning bed use contributes
to melanoma risk,” said Philippe Autier, M.D., of the Jules Bordet
Institute, Brussels, the chair of the session at which the studies
were presented.
The larger of the two
studies looked at tanning bed use by 106,000 Scandinavian women
enrolled in a lifestyle study in the early 1990s, part of which
involved a survey that asked if they used tanning equipment, when,
and for how long.
When the survey was repeated
with a portion of the subjects 5 years after the initial one, the
answers of 79% of surveys agreed completely with how the subjects
had answered before, and 96% had a high, but not exact, agreement,
suggesting the reports were very accurate, said Marit Bragelien
Veierød, Ph.D., of the department of biostatistics at the
University of Oslo.
With the data broken into
age groups by decade, those in the 20- to 29-year age group who
used tanning equipment one or more times a month had a 57% higher
relative risk of melanoma, those in the 30- to 39-year age group
had a 44% increased risk, and those in the 40- to 49-year age group
had a 69% higher risk.
Comparing all those who
reported having ever used tanning equipment with those who had
never used it, the study showed an increased relative risk of 33%
associated with tanning equipment use.
The second study compared
tanning equipment use in subjects who were enrolled in the
international Genes, Environment, and Melanoma Study and who had
single primary melanomas (406 cases) with those who had multiple
primary melanomas (125 cases).
Overall, 29% of the subjects
had used tanning equipment, and the mean age at initial diagnosis
of melanoma in those who had used it was 10 years younger than
those who had never used it, said Maria Chiu, of Cancer Care
Ontario, located in Toronto.
After adjustment for age and
sex, the data indicated that tanning equipment use was associated
with a higher risk of multiple melanomas, with an odds ratio of
1.68. For those in the highest quartile of frequency of use, the
odds ratio was 1.87. For those whose first exposure was before age
20 years, the odds ratio was 2.63, she said.
The data indicate a strong
dose response to tanning equipment use, Ms. Chiu added.
Previous studies that
attempted to associate tanning bed use with melanoma were generally
inconclusive, probably because these studies tended to be too small
to have adequate statistical power, according to the investigators
and others at the meeting.
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