Rise in Deadly Skin Cancers Among Young Women is Linked to Wealth

"Sun tanning, apparently - at least among well-off young white women. In the United States, more than 90 percent of the most deadly skin cancers - malignant melanomas - occur in the white population. Among young women the incidence is rising most rapidly. The risk of melanoma already has more than doubled among girls and women ages 15 to 39 over the past three decades. Now a study led by researchers at UCSF and the Cancer Prevention Institute of California concludes that young women are at highest risk for malignant melanoma if they live in neighborhoods that are both more well-to-do and sunnier. But the researchers also found that melanoma incidence increased at all rungs of the socioeconomic ladder."