It started out like a completely normal mole. Not something anyone would stop to check in the shower or in front of the mirror. A 28–year–old, healthy, active, with no reason to suspect that anything was wrong. Only when he finally arrives for an examination by a dermatologist, it turns out to be an early–stage melanoma. In most of these cases, there is no clear advance sign, no pain, and no feeling that something is changing. The change is slow and quiet, until it is no longer. The sentence that is repeated in almost every such diagnosis is nearly identical. I did not think it could happen at my age. In recent years, this sentence is being heard more and more, even among young people who would not have been considered a classic risk group.
What is beginning to become clear in the last decade is that this is not just a feeling but a measured pattern. More cases of melanoma are being diagnosed at relatively young ages, mainly in their twenties and thirties. The explanation is not a sudden biological change in the population, but rather a combination of several factors: More intensive sun exposure at a young age, especially through intentional tanning or concentrated vacations, alongside an improvement in diagnosis that detects lesions that in the past might not have been discovered at the same stage.
A review published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology describes a consistent trend of an increase in melanoma incidence at a young age in Western countries, mainly in populations with repeated sun exposures during adolescence and in their twenties.
Why is it happening more?
Melanoma develops from melanocyte cells, the cells responsible for producing pigment in the skin. Ultraviolet radiation causes cumulative damage to the genetic material of those cells. Most of the damage is repaired by the body, but when it accumulates over years, the control mechanisms lose control. At this stage, the cell begins to divide abnormally. The central problem is that this process is quiet: There is no pain, no feeling of illness, and sometimes also no clear change in appearance until relatively advanced stages.
The risk of melanoma is determined not only by how much sun one is exposed to, but by the pattern of exposure. Short but intense exposures that end in repeated sunburns, especially at a young age, are associated with a more significant increase in risk compared to moderate and continuous exposure. Alongside this, there are clearer risk groups: People with fair skin, a multiplicity of moles, atypical moles, or a family history of melanoma are at a higher risk level from the very first significant exposure.
It is important to be precise: The increase in diagnosis at a young age does not necessarily indicate a sudden outbreak of the disease, but rather a combination of higher awareness, more available skin checks, and changes in sun exposure habits throughout life. At the same time, the data clearly show that UV radiation remains the central risk factor, and that exposures at a young age affect the risk even decades ahead.
Melanoma at a young age is not a marginal phenomenon, but it is also not something that appears without context. In most cases, it is a combination of cumulative sun exposure and a lack of attention to small changes in the skin over time. What looks like a normal mole today is sometimes the result of a process that developed years earlier, long before anyone thought to check it.
Doctor Muhammad Sah is a specialist in dermatology and venereology, Maccabi Healthcare Services Northern District