NATION IN BRIEF : ILLINOIS : Jump in Sun-Linked Skin Cancer Found

A skin-cancer epidemic may be emerging because people insist on suntanning despite the dangers, say researchers. Annual cases of a type of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma increased 2.6 times in men and 3.1 times in women from 1960 to 1987, the researchers said in their report, released in Chicago and to be published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Assn. A deadlier skin cancer--malignant melanoma--rose 3.5-fold and 4.6-fold among men and women. “As individuals and as a society, it is only prudent to take precautions to save our skins,” said an editorial accompanying the report.