Melanoma is the 5th most common cancer in U.S. women ages 15-34 and the incidence is increasing rapidly at nearly 7% per year. The reasons for this dramatic increase are not well established. We propose to conduct a three-year population-based case-control study of white women with approximately 420 newly diagnosed melanoma patients and 840 controls using the San Francisco Bay Area SEER data. The purpose of the study is to test the hypothesis that oral contraceptive use and other events of reproductive life (e.g. age at birth of first child) influence the incidence of cutaneous melanoma, particularly the superficial spreading form of the disease. All white women who are 25 to 59 years of age and were diagnosed as having cutaneous melanoma between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 1986 will comprise the case group. Controls will be randomly chosen from the same five counties that comprise the SEER data base. Cases and controls will be interviewed in person regarding characteristics such as their medical histories, with special reference to oral contraceptive use and parity status, exposure to UV and fluorescent light, ability to tan, leisure time activities (indoors or outdoors), vacations in sunny climates, presence and size of nevi, eye and natural hair color, smoking history, etc. We will examine the relationship between cutaneous melanoma and exposure characteristics using methods developed by Mantel and Haenszel. We also will use the multiple-logistic model to assess possible interaction, to control for potentially confounding variables, and to obtain point estimates and confidence limits for the relative risk of each variable under study. The same methods will be used to analyze exposure characteristics by histologic type and tumor site.
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