Researchers suggest that a quarter of cases of the most frequent type of skin cancer found in people aged under forty could be prevented by banning sunbeds. The first study of its kind in young people revealed that indoor tanning can considerably raise the risk of basal cell carcinoma.
The users of sunbeds are seventy percent more prone to develop BCC prior to the age of the forty in comparison to individuals who never used the sunbeds. The risk of skin cancer was found to be strongest among women, which augmented with years of sunbed use.
Different from infrequent types of skin cancer, such as malignant melanoma, BCC can be treated easily and the survival rates are up to ninety-eight percent. But due to increased use of sunbeds the cases of skin cancer have increased by seventeen percent. Among women who are greater user of sunbeds, about forty-three percent of cases could be avoided if sunbeds were banned.
The latest study conducted by doctors at Yale University in US is the first that shows the damaging effects of sunbeds on the skin. The earlier studies have also shown that indoor tanning increases the risk of malignant melanoma, which the lethal form of skin cancer by seventy-four percent.
It is anticipated that each year in the UK, sunbeds are accountable for one hundred deaths caused by melanoma. According to study author to Dr David J. Leffell, professor of dermatology and surgery at Yale School of Medicine, they usually see young women with skin cancer in practice.
Formerly, this was exceptionally rare. But now in many cases the patients admit their use of tanning parlors, and this study confirms the harmful nature of this activity, added Dr J. Leffell. Although the explanation is multifactorial, sunbed use is undoubtedly a significant aspect and this study contribute to the growing evidence that sunbeds are harmful, explained Dr Raj Mallipeddi, a consultant dermatologist at St Thomas’ Hospital and the Lister Hospital, London.