“Shocking” number of melanoma survivors admit to never wearing sunscreen and using tanning beds

For some sun lovers, even a bout of skin cancer can't scare them into wearing sunscreen.

According to a study presented on April 8 at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting in Washington D.C., 27 per cent of melanoma survivors regularly skip the sunscreen.

Perhaps even more shocking, 2 per cent of survivors still use tanning beds.

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, taking nearly 9,500 lives each year in the U.S.

In Canada, an estimated 970 people died of melanoma in 2012.

Researchers found that, in general, melanoma survivors are more likely to stay in the shade (15.6 per cent of survivors seek refuge from the direct sun, while only 10.5 per cent of the general population do), wear sunscreen and don baseball caps than those without a history of skin cancer.

Still, the discovery that some cancer survivors fail to take proper precautions in the sun, even when faced with the risk of recurrence, is disturbing news.

"We know that melanoma is a malignancy prevalent in our population, and we know that for many people with melanoma, sun exposure is a major risk factor for recurrence and sun protection may reduce their chances of getting melanoma again," lead researcher Dr. Anees B. Chagpar, an associate professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine says in a statement.

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"Although we found that melanoma survivors did better than the general public at protecting their skin from the sun, we also found that more than a quarter of melanoma survivors never wear sunscreen. That blew my mind."

Chagpar and colleagues evaluated data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey and focused on the self-reported data about melanoma history, sun-protection practices and indoor tanning of 27,120 adults.

Of the thousands surveyed, 171 of them had a history of melanoma.

"We now know that a significant proportion of melanoma survivors still could be doing better. This study speaks to what we could do to educate melanoma survivors on how to prevent recurrence," Chagpar says, adding that she hopes researchers will use this date to educate people about better sun protection.

"Maybe we need to be more vigilant about education," she tells HealthDay.

The pride of youth may be somewhat to blame for the sun-protection failures of melanoma survivors, some experts speculate.

"I find it is the younger patients that are not as compliant with SPF after a diagnosis," Dr. Howard Brooks, director of Georgetown Skin in Washington, who was not involved in the research, tells CNN.

"I think young people still feel that they are invincible. They still want to look good for the beach or summer, so they will risk getting a tan."

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Others may just let down their guards over time, Mary Tripp, behaviour researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, tells USA Today.

"When someone is first diagnosed, they are practicing sun protection, but as the years go by, maybe they tend to fall back on their old habits," Tripp says. "A lot of melanoma survivors have told me that it is very important for them to maintain a normal outdoor lifestyle."

Dr. Hensin Tsao, a melanoma expert at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, agrees.

"My sense is that if the study stratified by time from diagnosis, there would naturally be an erosion of the sun-protective behaviours," he says.

Chagpar also wonders if melanoma survivors fully understand the risks of recurring cancer.

"Once you get melanoma you have a much higher risk of getting it again, in some other area. It’s important to be vigilant when it comes to staying out of the sun," she tells CNN.

"We can't help but wonder if patients are getting the message and just don't seem to care, or perhaps tanning could be more addictive to some. And that’s a whole new issue that we need to look at."

How often do you wear sunscreen?