Melanoma accounts for the majority of skin cancer deaths.,It has over thirty different subtypes.,Different races have been observed to differ in multiple aspects of melanoma.,SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) data on six major subtypes, namely melanoma in situ (MIS), superficial spreading melanoma (SSM), nodular melanoma (NM), lentigo maligna melanoma (LMM), acral lentiginous melanoma malignant (ALM), and malignant melanoma NOS (NOS), were analyzed.,The racial groups studied included NHW (non-Hispanic white), HW (Hispanic white), Black, and Asian/PI (Pacific Islanders).,Univariate and multivariate analysis was conducted to quantify racial differences in patients’ characteristics, incidence, treatment, and survival.,Significant racial differences are observed in patients’ characteristics.,For all subtypes except for ALM, NHWs have the highest incidence rates, followed by HWs, while Blacks have the lowest.,For ALM, HWs have the highest rate, followed by NHWs.,In stratified analysis, interaction between gender and race is observed.,For the first five subtypes and localized and regional NOS, the dominating majority of patients had surgery, while for distant NOS, the distribution of treatment is more scattered.,Significant racial differences are observed for distant ALM and NOS.,For MIS, SSM, NM, LMM, and ALM, there is no significant racial difference in survival.,For NOS, significant racial differences in survival are observed for the localized and regional stages, with NHWs having the best and Blacks having the worst five-year survival rates.,Racial differences exist for the six major melanoma subtypes in the U.S.,More data collection and analysis are needed to fully describe and interpret the differences across racial groups and across subtypes.
Telomere length has been associated with risk of many cancers, but results are inconsistent.,Seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously associated with mean leukocyte telomere length were either genotyped or well-imputed in 11108 case patients and 13933 control patients from Europe, Israel, the United States and Australia, four of the seven SNPs reached a P value under .05 (two-sided).,A genetic score that predicts telomere length, derived from these seven SNPs, is strongly associated (P = 8.92x10-9, two-sided) with melanoma risk.,This demonstrates that the previously observed association between longer telomere length and increased melanoma risk is not attributable to confounding via shared environmental effects (such as ultraviolet exposure) or reverse causality.,We provide the first proof that multiple germline genetic determinants of telomere length influence cancer risk.