According to Mayo Clinic researchers, more young people appear to be developing the most common types of skin cancer.  After studying basal and squamous cell carcinomas, which afflict 1 million American every year but are almost always curable, the researchers discovered data suggested skin cancer could become a much larger public health problem in years to come.

The doctors focused on people under 40 in Olmsted County, Minnesota, finding from 1976-1979 to 2000-2003, the combined rate of the two cancers grew from 19 cases per 100,000 people to 33 per 100,000, a 74 percent increase.  The diseases are mostly caused by overexposure to ultraviolet light from the sun and usually develop in older people who have spent many cumulative years exposed to the rays.   

In up to 90 percent of the cases with basal and squamous cell carcinomas they appear on the head and neck, but in the study, doctors found 40 percent of skin cancers on other parts of the body, likely reflecting the damages suffered because of excessive sunbathing.  Though the doctors only studied the medical records of one county where people are mostly white, the researchers believe their findings probably indicate an increased rate of skin cancer nationwide among Caucasians.

Because about half of people who develop a basal cell carcinoma develop at least one more, young people could be affected by cancer for the next 30 to 40 years.  The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.  Though basal and squamous cell carcinomas rarely spread or turn fatal, they can be disfiguring.