Hefty Health Price of Sunburns

Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer, and is  is the leading cause of death from skin disease.  Abrar A. Qureshi, from Brown University (Rhode Island, USA), and colleagues assessed data collected on 108,916 women, ages 25 to 42 years at the study’s start, enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study II.  Following the subjects for 20 years, the team observed that those who had at least five blistering sunburns when they were 15 to 20 years old were at a 68% increased risk for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, and an 80% increased risk for melanoma. Those who were exposed to the highest amounts of cumulative ultraviolet radiation in adulthood had no increased risk for melanoma, but had a 2.35-fold and 2.53-fold increased risk for developing basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the skin.  The study authors submit that: “In a cohort of U.S. women, we found that sun exposures in both early life and adulthood were predictive of [basal cell carcinoma] and [squamous cell carcinoma] risks, whereas melanoma risk was predominantly associated with sun exposure in early life.”