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Teens and Tanning
An Unhealthy Practice
By Kelly Burgess
"The number of teens being diagnosed with melanoma is still very rare, but the sun damage they get in their teenage years can cause problems in a relatively short time," says Geller. "At age 25 to 29, melanoma is one of the two or three most commonly diagnosed skin cancers. What we need to get across to teens is that this isn't that far down the road for them."
In addition, in females the most likely spot for melanoma to develop is on the backs of the legs, which are often exposed to the sun. In males, it's their backs because of the habit many boys and men have of taking off their shirt when they're working or playing outside.
Mary Eversole of Hazard, Ky., had a melanoma removed from her leg in 1998. She had stopped using tanning beds years before after her doctor warned her about their danger, but that didn't stop the melanoma from forming in the exact spot where Eversole's leg would press against the glass of the tanning booth. Although her visible spot was tiny, about the size of a pencil point, she had to have a huge chunk taken out of her leg because of what is called the "iceberg" effect of melanoma. Just as only the tip of an iceberg actually shows through the water, melanoma can penetrate a great deal more of the body than the bit of itself that shows on the surface.
Dr. Joseph Germino, associate professor of oncology at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, said this vertical growth phase is what separates melanoma from other skin cancers, such as basal cell or squamous cell.
"Melanoma has two kinds of growth phases: horizontal and vertical. The vertical growth phase is when it starts to penetrate deep into the skin and into the other layers of the body," says Dr. Germino. "Ideally, the horizontal growth phase lasts long enough for the melanoma to be detected and removed early. Some melanomas can get very aggressive and have a vertical growth phase early on."
