[Incidence of melanoma among young people: likely to be lower than reported]

A recent study has concluded that the incidence rate of head and neck melanomas in children and young people in Canada and the United States has increased over the last 20 years.However, other studies have shown that in the Netherlands and North America, the incidence of all melanomas among teenagers and young adults is falling, and certainly not rising.What is the reason for these contradictory results?Although the Canadian-American study saw an increase in melanoma of the head and neck region in people < 40 years-old, melanomas in the head and neck region represent only 12% of all melanomas in this age group.Other North American researchers have investigated the incidence of melanomas on all parts of the body and have come to the conclusion that the incidence rates among young people fell between 2001-2015. An analysis of data from the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR) shows that the incidence of melanoma in young children has not risen in 25 years. The Canadian-American study into the incidence of melanomas in children and young adults only included 12% of all melanomas and the age group studied was too broad (ages 15-39). It is highly likely that it is for this reason that the falling trend among teenagers and young adults did not come to light.