Statistics About Melanoma Health Article

Some people use statistics to try to figure out their chances of getting cancer or of being cured. However, statistics show what happens to large groups of people. Because no two people are alike, statistics can’t be used to predict what will happen to a particular person.

Here are some 2007 statistics about melanoma from the American Cancer Society.

• More than one million people in the United States will get skin cancer this year and about 59,000 of them will get melanoma.

• During the 1970s, the rate of new cases of melanoma each year increased at about 6% per year. Since 1981, however, the rate of increase has slowed to a little less than 3% per year.

• Melanoma is more often found in white people. They are about 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with melanoma than African Americans.

• Half of all melanomas are found in people younger than age 57.

• Melanoma makes up only a small amount of skin cancer cases (about 4%). But of the 3,800 skin cancer deaths, 2,900 of those will be due to melanoma.