Further Studies on Skin Melanomas Apparently Dependent on Female Sex Hormones

Abstract

Lee J A H [School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Department of Epidemiology SC 36, University of Washington, Seattle, USA] and Storer B E. Further Studies on skin melanomas apparently dependent on female sex hormones. International Journal of Epidemiology 1982, 11: 127–131. In the British Isles the incidence and mortality rates from melanoma of the skin have been shown to be higher in females than in males in the later years of reproductive life. In populations with higher rates for malignant melanoma of skin (Scandinavia, australasla etc), and also in Japan, where the rates are low, the of female to male deaths is lower than in the British Istes. However, a similar pattern of-agespecific sex ratios (risks for femals compared with males peaking at some age in the latter half of repoductive life, and relatively low in middle age) is found in these populations. This ‘gynaecologic’ factor is not an artifaft of interactions between age and yaer of birth effects, and apperears to act multiplicatively with other astiologic features. These findings have implications for studies of the aetiology and pathogenesis of malignant malanoma, as well as for the descriptive mathematical modelling of the rates for purposes of environemntal legislation.