UV-exposure during childhood and adulthood: Which period in life is more decisive for melanoma development?

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the relationship between the freque ncy of sunburns in childhood and adulthood, respectively, and the occurrenc e of malignant melanoma of the skin. The analysis is based on case-control data of 603 melanoma cases and 627 population: controls from 11 participati ng centers in seven European countries. The results confirm the increase in melanoma risk for an increasing number of sun burns during childhood and a dulthood in the same magnitude of risk elevation; The maximum OR for the hi ghest exposure category of more than five sunburns was during the childhood 2.0 (95%-CI: 1.2-3.5) and during the adulthood 2.1 (95%-CI: 1.4-3.3), resp ectively The analysis of the joint effects of sunburns during child- and ad ulthood on melanoma development corroborated these findings. In this joint analysis an OR of 2.1 (95%-CI: 1.3-3.5) quantifies the melanoma risk of tho se with three or more sunburns during child- and adulthood, respectively co mpared to those without any sunburns during these periods. The study does t herefore provide no supporting evidence for the presence of "critical perio d" during childhood in which a higher melanoma risk due to sunburns has bee n suggested by other studies.