Cloudy Evidence on Skin Cancer Screening Shines Light on Prevention

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) reported today in the journal, JAMA, that there is not enough evidence to recommend that adults get screened for skin cancer. Though some professional medical organizations recommend physician-performed visual checks for skin cancer — and many physicians carry them out — the USPSTF found no solid evidence that […]

Help Protect Kids from Cancer: Support a Ban on Youth Indoor Tanning

by Hank Dart We’ve written a great deal in CNiC over the years on the dangers of indoor tanning, with one primary theme being the allure it has to young people, especially teenage girls.  It even seems to border on an addiction of sorts, as some research suggests. With UV exposure in youth and young […]

2015’s Top Posts on Cancer News in Context

It’s been another big year of cancer prevention news, and it started with a real splash way back in January with a headline-grabbing study in Science attributing most cases of cancer to simple “bad luck.” Not surprisingly, we disagreed with that conclusion, and our post responding to the study – and the stories it generated […]

Preventing Skin Cancer: Tanning Beds Still Alluring, Still Very Risky

Photo: Flickr/whatshername, Creative Commons Lic. There was a nice piece in the New York Times this weekend on the risks of indoor tanning, particularly in youth. Focussing on the personal experiences of a handful of young women and their  parents, it does a very good job highlighting the well-established risks of skin cancer and deadly melanoma, the […]

New Study: Tanning Bed Use Brings Skin Cancer Risks – and Brings Them Early

Photo: Flickr/whatshername A new study out this week further confirms the dangers of indoor tanning, finding that use of tanning beds and other UV tanning devices is strongly linked to developing skin cancer early in life. Published early online in the medical journal Pediatrics, the study compared the history of indoor tanning in a group […]

Mother/Daughter Tanning and the Dual Nature of Family History

We’ve dedicated a number of posts over the past year on the policy and health pitfalls of indoor tanning – from the potential benefits of the “tanning tax” (post) to surprisingly high rates of tanning by some youth (post).  Now comes a fascinating, if not perfectly surprising, little analysis on the influence parents can have […]

Video: No Such Thing as Safe Tanning

In the June issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, University of Minnesota researcher DeAnn Lazovich and colleagues published a study further confirming the dangers of indoor tanning, finding significant increases in the risk of melanoma linked to regular tanning bed use (link).  She summarizes her findings and take-home messages in this nice […]

Tanning Beds, Addiction, and Taxes

A new study in this month’s Archives of Dermatology suggests that indoor tanning can be addicting in young adults (study) (1).  While the study was relatively small, with just over 400 participants surveyed, the results seem to bolster the need for moves toward greater regulation of the indoor tanning industry, especially through policies that curtail […]

More Blistering Truths About Tanning Bed Use By Youth

A new study published online last week in the British Medical Journal on tanning bed use by youth in the United Kingdom has raised concerns well beyond its shores (full study) (1).   The study surveyed over 9,000 children aged 11 -17 in England, Wales, and Scotland and found that 6 percent of those surveyed […]