Melanoma survivors at higher risk of other cancers

Category Health | Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Survivors of melanoma skin cancer are nine times more likely to develop another melanoma than the rest of the population, and are at a much higher risk of being diagnosed again with any kind of cancer, according to new research.

The findings suggest that melanoma survivors need lifelong cancer monitoring.

Melanoma is not the most common form of skin cancer, but it is the most serious. In 2009, an estimated 5,000 Canadians were diagnosed with the cancer and 940 Canadians died.

While the incidence for the majority of cancers in Canada are stabilizing or even declining, melanoma rates are still increasing.

Melanoma’s survival rate is high, with 87 per cent of diagnosed men and 93 per cent of women still alive after five years. But the risk for a second diagnosis of melanoma is also high, this research confirms.

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