Indoor tanning may increase melanoma risk by 74 percent

Indoor ultraviolet tanning may increase the risk of melanoma by 74% than those who have never tanned indoors. The more time someone has spent tanning indoors, the higher the risk. Melanoma is a type of skin cancer, it rare but deadly. In 2009 melanoma killing almost 8,650 Americans.

In a research of 1,167 melanoma cases and 1,101 people without melanoma, as control,  appearing in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, researchers, which led by DeAnn Lazovich of the University of Minnesota, found that almost 63% of the melanoma patients but just over 51% of the control group had tanned indoors.

According to a 2009 report released by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), ultraviolet radiation from tanning machines is cancer-causing to humans. The IARC also includes solar radiation in its list of the most dangerous types of cancer-causing substances.

Tanning frequency directly influenced melanoma risk in the Minnesota study. People who had tanned indoors for more than 50 hours (more than 100 sessions, or 10 or more years) were between 2.5 and 3.0 times more likely to develop melanoma than non-indoor tanners.

In March, a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel unanimously recommended that the FDA upgrade its medical device classification of tanning machines to better reflect the dangers they pose to users’ health. Currently, tanning machines are considered Class I medical devices, making them subject to few regulations and little oversight.

The study did not find that the age at which indoor tanners begin the practice is as influential as previously thought. In 2006, a study of multiple studies found that people who began tanning before age 35 had a 75% higher risk of developing melanoma. But, according to the authors of the study, the analysis indicates that early age exposure is most likely a marker for cumulative exposure, meaning that the younger a patient was when s/he started tanning, the more time s/he has had to accumulate hours of UV radiation exposure.