Age and Skin Cancer

Like most cancers, skin cancer is more common with increasing age, but malignant melanoma is disproportionately high in younger people. Malignant melanoma is now the most common cancer in young adults (aged 15-34) in the UK. Over the last twenty-five years, rates of malignant melanoma in Britain have risen faster than any other common cancer.

Although non-melanoma skin cancer is extremely common, in the vast majority of cases it is detected early and is not life threatening. Malignant melanoma survival rates have been improving for the last twenty-five years and are now amongst the highest for any cancer. More than 2,600 people die from skin cancer each year in the UK. Most skin cancer deaths, more than 2,000 each year, are from malignant melanoma.