Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer.

In the UK, 1 in 52 men and 1 in 54 women will currently develop melanoma in their lifetime.

When caught early, melanoma has a very good chance of being dealt with. At stage 1, melanoma has a 5 year survival rate of 98%. However, if it has spread to the lymph nodes then 5 year survival rates are around 50% and if it has spread to other organs in the body then 5 year survival rates drop to around 15%.

In 2014, melanoma accounted for 2,459 deaths in UK, which was close to 2% of all cancer deaths in UK.

Despite the fact that more males die from melanoma than females (14:10), melanoma is the most likely cancer killer of females 29-34. For women at that age, it is a more common cancer killer than breast cancer.

Deaths by melanoma have increased by 156% in the last 40 years and are expected to continue to increase in the following years, despite huge advances in treatment. This is due to increasing availability and access to “sun” holidays and also the use of sun beds in the last few years.

 

*these statistics have been gathered from the following site;
– http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/skin-cancer
– http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/type/melanoma/treatment/melanoma-statistics-and-outlook