Intended for healthcare professionals

Managing familial melanoma

Julia Newton Bishop
Melanoma sometimes occurs in families, a fact that is indicative of genetic susceptibility to the disease. Around 5% of melanoma patients in the UK report a family history, but this figure is higher in hotter areas of the world; for example, 7% of Canadian patients and 11% of patients in an Australian study. The significance of the observation that different rates of clustering occur in countries at different latitudes is as yet unconfirmed and merits further study. One explanation for this phenomenon may be that it indicates an effect of both shared genes and environment (sun exposure) in determining familial clustering.
Dermatology in practice 2003; 11(1): 12–15
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Dermatology in practice was previously supported by Wyeth from 2008 to 2010, by Wyeth and Serono in 2007, by Wyeth and Shire from 2005 to 2006, by Medlock Medical in 2004 and by SSL International from 2001 to 2003.

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