While women are more affected by melanoma, a study reveals that young men die more frequently from this cancer.
In France, each year, approximately 8,300 melanomas are diagnosed, of which a little more than half (53%) in women, and approximately 1,600 people die of this disease. Across the world, same observation, women are more frequently affected by this dangerous form of skin cancer, however, several studies show that this disease is more serious, even more often fatal, when it affects men. A difference between the two sexes that dermatologists have observed for more than ten years, but which they are still not able to explain precisely.
For the first time, an American study which has just appeared in the Jama Dermatology shows that this excess male mortality in melanoma also exists in the young population. The authors of this work followed 26,107 adolescents and young adults diagnosed with melanoma between the ages of 15 and 39. For the same size and type of tumor, regardless of where it is located, young men are 55% more likely to die than women. More precisely of the 1,561 deaths that occurred during the study attributable to melanoma 64% were men. Yet at the start of the study, they represented only 39% of melanoma cases.
Listen to Dr Thomas Jouary, dermatologist in the cutaneous oncology unit of Bordeaux University Hospital : ” The other advantage of this study is that it confirms that melanoma is also a disease that affects young people and that it is quite common. “
The authors of this study were unable to explain this difference in mortality between the two sexes. However, they raise several hypotheses. One of them would be that female hormones could have an influence on the occurrence of melanoma or conversely, provide protection against its mortality. Further studies will be necessary anyway, in order to understand, on a biological basis, the reasons for this disparity between the sexes in the survival of melanoma.
In addition, these scientists want their results to encourage public authorities to implement early detection strategies in young men.
Listen to Dr Thomas Jouary: ” It is in the cosmetics field that messages should be conveyed to men. They resort more and more to tanning lamps. “
These results therefore provide new scientific arguments in favor of more effective prevention, especially in young people, against melanoma. Data that should be of interest to members of the Academy of Medicine who recently called for a ban on advertisements for tanning beds. Since 2009, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (Circ) has classified them as “certain carcinogenic to humans”, after having assessed that the risk of developing cutaneous melanoma is increased by 75% for individuals who have had recourse. at least once in tanning booths before the age of 35. Moreover, the advertising that has attracted the wrath of academics, precisely targets young men who love sport. In this advertisement, the champions of the Marseilles Swimmers’ circle, some of whom were particularly distinguished during the London 2012 Olympic Games, are presented as the “new ambassadors” of a brand “in the image of our team: young, dynamic and ambitious in its specialty ”, not really the ideal melanoma prevention slogan…
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