Overdiagnosis of melanoma seems to be occurring among White men and women, according to a study published online March 16 in JAMA Dermatology .

Adewole S. Adamson, M.D., from Dell Medical School at the University of Texas in Austin, and colleagues quantified melanoma overdiagnosis among White and Black patients in the United States using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program from 1975 to 2014.

The researchers found that from 1975 to 2014, there was an approximately fourfold and sixfold increase in melanoma incidence in White women and White men, respectively (incidence rate ratios [IRRs], 4.01 [95 percent confidence interval, 3.65 to 4.41] and 5.97 [5.47 to 6.52], respectively), while much smaller increases were seen in Black women and men (IRRs, 1.21 [0.97 to 1.49] and 1.17 [0.77 to 1.78], respectively). Reductions were seen in mortality due to melanoma among Black women and men (mortality rate ratios [MRRs], 0.76 [0.63 to 0.90] and 0.72 [0.62 to 0.84], respectively), while the rate was stable in White women (MRR, 1.02 [0.96 to 1.09]) and increased for White men (MRR, 1.49 [1.25 to 1.77]). Estimated mortality would have increased 60 percent in White women and more than doubled in White men had medical care not improved. Based on these trends, in 2014, an estimated 59 and 60 percent of White women and men with melanoma, respectively, were overdiagnosed, calculated as the difference between observed incidence and estimated true cancer occurrence.

"Dermatologists must grapple with the very real prospect that screening is a major source of the increased incidence of melanoma," the authors write.

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