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UK Skin Cancer mortality statistics

This page presents malignant melanoma mortality statistics including by age and sex and trends over time.

Malignant Melanoma mortality by age and sex

In 2005 there were 1,817 deaths from malignant melanoma in the UK (Table 2.1).1-4

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The numbers of deaths and the age-specific rates are shown in Figure 2.1. The mortality rates rise steadily with age but as the chart shows, substantial numbers of deaths occur in younger people. In 2005, 116 people aged under 40 died from malignant melanoma and half of all deaths were in people aged under 70.

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Malignant melanoma mortality trends over time

The age-standardised mortality rates in Great Britain (Figure 2.2) show a continuous rise for men from around 1.2 per 100,000 in the early 1970s to 2.8 in 2005. Female rates were slightly higher than those for men in the early 1970s at 1.3 per 100,000 but seem to level off from the 1990s onwards and since then have remained at around 2.0 per 100,000.

Increases in mortality reflect increases in incidence but are much less pronounced due to the effects of earlier diagnosis and improving treatment. The lower mortality rates since the mid-1980s for women compared with men, despite the higher female incidence, is a reflection of the better female survival rates, partly the result of the larger proportion of thinner lesions in women compared with men.

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Age-specific malignant melanoma mortality trends in the UK are very similar to those for incidence with the greatest increase in the oldest age groups.

Rates for men aged over 65 have quadrupled from 3 per 100,000 in 1971 to 13 in 2005 (Figure 2.3).

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Malignant melanoma mortality rates for women over 65 have tripled from 3 to 9 over the same period (Figure 2.4). At younger ages, there is some indication that female rates are levelling off – an encouraging trend also recorded in other white populations of North America, Australia and the Nordic countries.5,6

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References

1. Office for National Statistics Mortality Statistics: Cause. England and Wales 2005 London TSO 2006
2. Northern Ireland Cancer Registry, 2007, Cancer Mortality in Northern Ireland, 2005
3. ISD Online, 2007, Cancer Mortality in Scotland, 2005
4. Severi, G., et al., Mortality from cutaneous melanoma: evidence for contrasting trends between populations. Br J Cancer, 2000. 82(11): p. 1887-91.
5. La Vecchia, C., et al., Recent declines in worldwide mortality from cutaneous melanoma in youth and middle age. Int J Cancer, 1999. 81(1): p. 62-6.

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