
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990                   TAG: 9003270169
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.                                LENGTH: Short

STUDY FINDS SIX FLAGS FOR SKIN CANCER RISK

People with one or more of six characteristics run higher-than-normal risks of getting the deadliest form of skin cancer, a new study suggests.

Because of its high curability in early stages, and the ease in identifying likely susceptible people, "no one should die from melanoma," researcher Darrell Rigel of New York University said.

Melanoma is expected to kill 6,300 Americans this year, according to the American Cancer Society. Some 27,600 new cases of melanoma, caused chiefly by excessive exposure to the sun, are expected this year.

Rigel described the new study Sunday at a science writers conference sponsored by the cancer society. The work included data from 200 people with or without melanoma, and considered 43 possible factors that might have been found to contribute to the disease.

Six factors appeared to raise the risk of melanoma: blond or red hair; marked freckling of the upper back; the presence of rough red bumps on the skin called actinic keratoses that come from sun exposure; a history of other family members with melanoma; a history of three or more blistering sunburns during the teen-age years; and having spent three or more years at an outdoor summer job as a teen-ager.

Having any one or two of these factors gives a person a three to four times increased chance of developing melanoma, the study suggested. The combination of three or more factors gave an increase of 20 to 25 times, Rigel said.

by CNB