Teenage acne may increase risk of melanoma

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal Cancer, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts have found an association between teenage acne and melanoma.

For the study, researchers followed 99,128 female nurses from the Nurses' Health Study II cohort for 20 years to investigate the risk of eight cancers.

Results showed that among participants with a history of severe teenage acne, the risk of developing melanoma after adjusting for known risk factors increased. The multivarable--adjusted hazard ratio was 1.44. Those with teenage acne were also more likely to have moles (52.7% versus 50.1%; P < 0.001).

Furthermore, in an independent melanoma case-control study that included 930 cases of melanoma and 1,026 control cases, the association between teenage acne and melanoma was found. In that study, the multivaribale-adjusted odds ratio was 1.27.

Those with teenage acne in this study were also more likely to have moles (55.2% versus 45.1%; P = 0.004). The findings suggest that teenage acne may be a new risk factor for melanoma, but further studies are warranted to confirm this association.