Study Sheds Some New Light on Skin Cancer

A recent study disputes the age-old belief that people with red hair and freckles are more prone to deadly skin cancer than blonds or brunettes, scientists report.

Instead, those with greatest risk for contracting malignant melanoma include fair-skinned individuals with blond or light brown hair and blue eyes who have difficulty tanning, the researchers reported in the July issue of the Western Journal of Medicine, published by the California Medical Assn.

“There is a common misconception that persons with bright red hair and freckles are those in whom malignant melanoma is most likely to develop,” the researchers write.

“This was not borne out by our data” on 325 patients treated between 1973 and 1983 at the Melanoma Research Center of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.

Of 208 melanoma patients in the study whose hair color was recorded, eight had auburn hair, 12 black, 26 red, 54 blond and 108 light brown, Linda Krebs, a co-author of the report, said in a telephone interview from Denver.

Although the researchers do not know the hair color distribution among the general population, “the fact that only 12% of our melanoma patients had red hair was very surprising in view of the popular notion that redheads are the most prone to get the deadly skin cancer,” said Dr. William Robinson, who headed the study.

The researchers reported an epidemic of all skin cancers--especially the deadly malignant melanoma--across the country and, particularly, in the West where an outdoor life style is more the rule than the exception.

The American Cancer Society estimates that this year alone 27,000 Americans will come down with malignant melanoma and another 5,800 will die of the disease. About 500,000 people in the United States will suffer and another 2,000 die from other types of skin cancer.

“It is important to realize the high incidence of skin cancer in the Western United States is probably the result of increased levels of ultraviolet radiation from abundant sunshine coupled with changes in clothing habits and alterations in life styles that have led to considerable increases in time spent out of doors,” Robinson said.

“This is vital because it suggests that cutaneous malignant melanoma may be in large part a preventable disease.”

Melanoma can be deadly when not detected in time. As the pigmented lesion spreads deeper into tissue beneath the skin, the chance of a cure decreases.

Men are at higher risk than women for contracting melanoma, and lesions on the trunk are considered more serious than those on the extremities of the body, Krebs said. The worst type of melanoma occurs in an area that includes the back of the head, nape of the neck and across the shoulders.

The researchers urge the public--and particularly those in the high-risk group for melanoma--to avoid sunbathing, wear protective clothing and use sunscreens outdoors.

Since scientists blame melanoma on infrequent but severe sun exposure rather than frequent but mild tanning, Krebs said, it is crucial that parents protect their children, whose skin is more sun-sensitive.

“An infant severely burned by the sun even once can later be at high risk for melanoma,” Krebs said. “Babies should be kept in the shade or, if allowed in the sun, should be heavily greased with sunscreens with high sun protection factors.”

The scientists recommend immediate removal of pigmented lesions suspected of being cancerous.