Prevention, Risk and Screening »Risk Assessment at Fox Chase »Skin Cancer

• Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer among American men and the sixth most common among American women.
• More than 53,000 cases a year are diagnosed in this country.
• Half the cases occur after age 50, but people as young as 20 are also at risk.
• Melanoma is now one of the most common cancers affecting Americans younger than 30.
• Among women between 25 and 29 years old, melanoma is more common than any non-skin cancer.
• Melanoma kills nearly 8,000 Americans a year.
• An estimated 80 percent of sun damage occurs before age 18, which can set the stage for skin cancer later. (Protecting children from sun is very important!)

Early detection is the key to successful treatment for melanoma. An early melanoma may be curable by surgery alone. However, tumors that have spread to the lymph nodes or penetrated lower layers of skin may recur or spread to internal organs. A variety of new chemotherapy and therapeutic vaccine regimens are available at Fox Chase to treat patients with advanced melanoma.