Not only did older men have a much higher rate of melanoma, the melanomas they developed were of a much later stage on average. Furthermore, the researchers found that the overall rate of melanoma has been increasing rapidly over the last 25 years. The rate of increase in melanoma for all ages was about 4.6 percent a year for men, and 3.2 percent a year for women. This difference may be due to hormonal or other changes during menopause, but the cause of the disparity is still unknown. Because melanoma is almost uniformly survivable when detected early but has a much worse prognosis if detected late, there may be a role for public education campaigns and screening.
Elderly men appear to be prime candidates for such interventions.
However, it seems that women going through menopause have some kind of protective effect, which keeps their rate from increasing, at least until age 60. In addition to finding the sex differences in melanoma, the researchers also found that the risks of dying from melanoma were raised by increasing age, having thicker tumors or having the tumors on the torso instead of the arms, legs, head or neck. Having nodular tumors instead of other types of melanomas also increased the risk of dying from the disease. The researchers now are looking at what may cause this plateau effect among women of menopausal age. The study is part of the UCI-UCSD Cancer Genetics Network Center, which was established through a grant from NCI to study the complex genetic interactions in cancer.