Pediatrics

• Melanoma accounts for up to three percent of all pediatric cancers.
• Between 1973 and 2001, melanoma incidence in those under 20 rose 2.9 percent.
• Melanoma is seven times more common between the ages of 10 and 20 than it is between 0 and 10 years.
• Diagnoses - and treatment - are delayed in 40 percent of childhood melanoma cases.
• Ninety percent of pediatric melanoma cases occur in girls aged 10-19.

Sources
Strous JJ, Fears TR, Tucker MA, Wayne AS. Pediatric melanoma: risk factor and survival analysis of the surveillance, epidemiology and end results database. J Clin Oncol 2005; 23:4735-41.

Lange JR., Palis BE, Chang DC, Soong S, Balch CM. Melanoma in Children and Teenagers: An Analysis of Patients From the National Cancer Data Base. J. Clin. Oncol. 2007; 25:1363-8.

Ferrari A, Bono A, Baldi M, et al. Does Melanoma Behave Differently in Younger Children Than in Adults? A Retrospective Study of 33 Cases of Childhood Melanoma From a Single Institution. Pediatrics. 2005; 115:649-57.