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Skin cancer experts have long believed that sunburns suffered during youth are more likely to lead to melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, than sunburns in adulthood. New research, however, suggests that sunburns at any age may be equally dangerous. This is true for both males and females, although one recent study suggests that women in their menopausal years may be less susceptible to melanoma.

Double Trouble. A team of scientists at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, recently found that having several sunburns over the course of a lifetime can double or triple melanoma risk, no matter when the sunburns occur.

The study included 603 melanoma patients and a control group of 627 individuals who had never had melanoma, according to lead researcher Annette Pfahlberg, PhD, assistant professor, School of Medicine, Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry & Epidemiology. All the subjects, from seven different countries in Europe, reported their history of sunburns, dividing them into two periods -- before and after age 15. This dividing line proved irrelevant, because the patients' risk of developing melanoma increased as their frequency of sunburns increased, regardless of when the sunburns occurred. More than five lifetime sunburns translated to twice the risk; more than 15 translated to three times the risk.

This is the largest case-control study (where patients who have a disease are compared against people who don't) to investigate the different impact of childhood and adulthood sun exposure on melanoma development.