Mark Purdue from the National Cancer Institute discovered from government data on white men and woman from the ages of 15 to 39 that between the years of 1980 and 2004, yearly cases of melanoma increased in the young woman only, by about 50%. The numbers went from 9.4 cases to 13.9 cases per 100,000.
They also determined that the melanomas themselves were thicker and tended to be metastic which means it easily spreads to other parts of the body. Once a cancer does that it’s extremely difficult to treat or cure.
Young men did not show an increase in the skin cancer. The researchers right now don’t have an answer for why this occurred other than the suspicion that young woman do more sunbathing to get summer tans and also frequent tanning booths which are both risks for the deadly cancer.