Overview 

Skin cancer is the abnormal growth of skin cells. While it occurs most often on skin exposed to the sun, it can also occur on areas of your skin not ordinarily exposed to sunlight. There are three major types of skin cancer - basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. Basal cell and squamous cell cancers are most often found in areas exposed to the sun, such as the head, neck, and arms, but they also can occur elsewhere. They are very common but are also usually very treatable. Melanoma is much less common than basal cell and squamous cell skin cancers, but it is far more dangerous. Like basal cell and squamous cell cancers, melanoma is almost always curable in its early stages. But it is much more likely than basal or squamous cell cancer to spread to other parts of the body if not caught early.

Tanning outside and in tanning booths are both causally related to skin cancer. Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is a proven human carcinogen. Just one indoor tanning session increases users' chances of developing melanoma by 20 percent, and each additional session during the same year boosts the risk almost another two percent. Among people ages 18 to 29 that have ever used a tanning bed and were diagnosed with melanoma, 76 percent of those melanoma cases were attributable to tanning bed use. People who first use a tanning bed before age 35 increase their risk for melanoma by 75 percent.  

On an average day in the United States, more than 1 million people tan in tanning salons and in 2010, the indoor tanning industry's revenue is estimated to be $2.6 billion.[i]

Epidemiology 

More than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people are diagnosed annually. Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon.
 

An estimated 76,690 new cases of invasive melanoma will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2013. Of the seven most common cancers in the U.S., melanoma is the only one whose incidence is increasing. Between 2000 and 2009, incidence climbed 1.9 percent annually. Of note, from 1970 to 2009, the incidence of melanoma increased by 800 percent among young women and 400 percent among young men.