Can young people get skin cancer?

If you need fur­ther proof of the risk of the dan­gers of skin can­cer in young peo­ple, watch this video. Diag­nosed with Stage 4 melanoma at just 21 years of age, Emma Betts cre­at­ed ​‘Dear Melanoma’ a blog to raise aware­ness of the risk of melanoma in young peo­ple, before she passed away last year.

Younger adults often spend more time in the sun and tend to par­tic­i­pate in out­door activ­i­ties more than old­er age groups say experts, also it's important to note that excessive alcohol consumption can also increase the risk of skin cancer. Many young adults still believe that a tan makes them look bet­ter and that they’re ​“invin­ci­ble”. Worse still, many ado­les­cents and young peo­ple are refus­ing to wear sun­screen and to wear a hat in the scorch­ing sun.

As this video shows, Aus­tralian doc­tors are pre­dict­ing that in five or ten year’s time, we’ll be fac­ing a health cri­sis, when more and more young peo­ple are like­ly to be diag­nosed with skin cancer.

Whether young or old, some peo­ple have a high­er melanoma risk due to fac­tors such as skin type or fam­i­ly his­to­ry. If your skin colour is light or pale, your hair colour is red or blonde, you burn eas­i­ly, your skin is already sun dam­aged, you’ve used sunbeds, and/​or you have a larg­er num­ber of moles (par­tic­u­lar­ly fun­ny-look­ing moles), your risk lev­el is higher.

How­ev­er, hav­ing olive or dark­er skin (and dark­er hair) doesn’t give you a pass from the risk of skin can­cer. While dark­er-skinned peo­ple have a much low­er chance of get­ting melanoma, they often have thick­er (more seri­ous) melanomas once they’re detect­ed^6.

And any­one with a per­son­al or fam­i­ly his­to­ry of melanoma is at greater risk too. If a close rel­a­tive (such as a par­ent, grand­par­ent, sib­ling or child) has had melanoma – or if you’ve had a melanoma removed – your risk is much higher.

If you’re not sure what your risk lev­el is, take our 1‑minute risk check here.

Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief, there’s no such thing as a ​‘healthy tan’. In fact, did you know that hav­ing just five or more sun­burns can dou­ble your risk of melanoma⁷ in lat­er life.

In fact, the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion has iden­ti­fied solar UV radi­a­tion as a proven car­cino­gen, with stud­ies link­ing it to about 90 per­cent of non-melanoma skin can­cers and about 86 per­cent of melanomas, as well as pre­ma­ture skin aging⁷.

It’s easy to think you’re bul­let-proof and skin can­cer-proof when you’re young, but chances are that it will catch up with you lat­er on. Younger peo­ple are more like­ly to have greater UV expo­sure due to sun-seek­ing behav­iour and increased par­tic­i­pa­tion in out­door activities.

If you feel you need a ​‘glow­ing tan’, using fake tan­ning lotions has been proven to be a much bet­ter option. And if you are out in the sun, reduce your risk of sun­burn by mak­ing sure you ​‘slip, slop, slap, wrap’ and MoleMap.

In a word, no. Using tan­ning beds is not rec­om­mend­ed at any age – to tan or to boost your Vit­a­min D lev­els. In Aus­tralia, com­mer­cial tan­ning beds have been banned in all states and ter­ri­to­ries since 2016 – for good rea­son. That’s because UV radi­a­tion (the radi­a­tion that caus­es a sunbed to give you a tan) is proven to increase your risk of melanoma and oth­er skin can­cers⁸.

The more often you use sunbeds, and the younger you start using them, the high­er your skin can­cer risk. What’s more, your skin will also age more quickly.

UK teen, Emi­ly Hay­ward was diag­nosed with malig­nant melanoma (skin can­cer) when she was just 17, after dis­cov­er­ing a mole on her calf. Two years lat­er, a scan revealed the can­cer had returned and had spread to her lymph nodes, and lat­er to her lungs, liv­er and brain.Emi­ly shared her jour­ney through her own YouTube chan­nel, as she want­ed to show the raw side of can­cer: the side that isn’t usu­al­ly doc­u­ment­ed. Emi­ly didn’t want to be defined by her diag­no­sis. She want­ed to raise aware­ness of melanoma and to also show that you can still live life to the full while going through can­cer treat­ment or fac­ing a ter­mi­nal diag­no­sis. ​“I’ve just got to live my life know­ing that this could be it,” she said.

Emi­ly passed away after a sev­en-year bat­tle with melanoma, but not before she’d spread the word about the dan­gers of melanoma for young peo­ple to her thou­sands of followers.

Emily’s sto­ry is a fright­en­ing reminder that, no mat­ter whether you’re young, old or some­where in between, it’s a good idea to self-check your skin and moles reg­u­lar­ly (at least every three months) — and the skin of your loved ones.

We also rec­om­mend hav­ing a skin check every one to two years if you’re low to mod­er­ate risk – or a comprehensive mole check like our Full Body MoleMap every year if you’re mod­er­ate to high risk. Not sure of your risk lev­el? Take our quick risk check right now.

Don’t know what to look for? Check out this arti­cle to know what is melanoma on the ear­ly signs of melanoma and oth­er skin cancers.

If an at-risk mole is diag­nosed dur­ing your skin check at the skin cancer clinics, there are a cou­ple of options. The der­ma­tol­o­gist may rec­om­mend mon­i­tor­ing the mole to see if it changes over time, and you’ll be asked to come back for a fur­ther check in 3 to 6 months. If it needs imme­di­ate exci­sion (removal), you’ll be referred to a spe­cial­ist to have it removed.

No mat­ter whether you’re young, old or some­where in between, it’s vital to use Sun­Smart mea­sures when you’re out in the sun, even if it’s just for a few min­utes. This not only helps to pro­tects your skin from skin can­cer, it’ll also help pre­vent wrin­kles, sun spots and hav­ing skin that looks like leather in lat­er life.

This includes apply­ing a broad-spec­trum SPF30+ sun­screen every day (even in win­ter months), wear­ing a broad-brimmed hat, sun­glass­es and pro­tec­tive cloth­ing when you’re in the sun, and reduc­ing your sun expo­sure between 10am and 4pm dur­ing day­light sav­ings months.

Your old­er self will thank you for it one day!

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_{1,2,3. Melanoma Institute Australia: https://www.melanoma.org.au/understanding-melanoma/melanoma-facts-and-statistics/ 4. Skincancer.org: https://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/skin-cancer-facts/ 5. Cancer.org: https://www.cancer.org.au/news/media-releases/one-in-two-aussie-sunburns-occur-during-everyday-activity.html 6. Skincancer.org: https://www.skincancer.org/blog/ask-the-expert-is-there-a-skin-cancer-crisis-in-people-of-color/ 7,8. World Health Organisation: https://www.who.int/gho/phe/ultraviolet_radiation}