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Dramatic
300 Percent Rise in Eye Melanoma Among White Males from 1973 to 1999: Study
Another
Good Reason to Wear Sunglasses
New
York, NY (Summer 2003) -- The incidence of conjunctival melanoma among white males soared 295% between 1973 and 1999, according to a study published in the June 1, 2003 American Journal of Ophthalmology.
No such acceleration was found in white women, making this the first analysis to report a “difference of trends for conjunctival melanoma by sex,” according to Guo-Pei You, MD, a biostatistician and principal author, and
Paul T. Finger,
M.D., director of Ocular Tumor Services at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, and senior author.
The conjunctiva is the area of the eye between the cornea and eye lid. Most patients with conjunctival melanoma are white (93.5%) and older than 40 years of age (87.5%).
While the incidence of conjunctival melanoma is extremely low, ranging from 0.2 to 0.5 per million among white populations, the finding of the new study “add another reason for people to wear sunglasses to protect themselves from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays,” according to Dr. Finger.
Using population-based registry data from the National Cancer Institute, the study identified 206 newly diagnosed patients with conjunctival melanoma between 1973 and 1999.
The authors note that there has been a similar rise in skin cancer over the past 25 years and that “with increasing evidence that exposure to the sun is important in the etiology of cutaneous melanoma, it seems reasonable to suspect that sunlight or sunlight-related factors have influenced the recent trends of conjunctival melanoma.”
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Information on NYEE.EDU
Protecting
Your Eyes from the Summer Sun
Highlights (June
2002)
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