Teenage Acne and Cancer Risk in US Women

January 17, 2015

Abstract

Background
Acne reflects hormone imbalance and is a key component of several systemic diseases. We hypothesized that diagnosis of acne as a teenager might predict subsequent risk of hormone-related cancers.

Methods
We followed 99,128 female nurses in the Nurses' Health Study II cohort for 20 years (1989-2009) and used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) of 8 specific cancers (breast, thyroid, colorectal, ovarian, cervical, and endometrial cancers, melanoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma) for women with a history of severe teenage acne.

Results
After thoroughly adjusting for the previously known risk factors for each cancer, we found that among women with a history of severe teenage acne, the relative risk increased, with a multivariable-adjusted HR of 1.44 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-2.01) for melanoma. We replicated this association in an independent melanoma case-control study of 930 cases and 1026 controls (multivariable-adjusted odds ratio, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.03-1.56). We also found that in both studies the individuals with teenage acne were more likely to have moles (52.7% vs 50.1%, P < .001 in the cohort study; and 55.2% vs 45.1%, P = .004 in the case-control study).

Conclusions
Our findings suggest that a history of teenage acne might be a novel risk factor for melanoma independent from the known factors, which supports a need for continued investigation of these relationships.

Source
Teenage acne and cancer risk in US women: A prospective cohort study Mingfeng Zhang. Cancer. Article first published online: 8 JAN 2015 DOI: 10.1002/cncr.29216 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.29216/abstract

See also: Researchers Find Link Between Aggressive Acne And Melanoma Risk
http://melanomanewstoday.com/2015/01/21/researchers-find-link-aggressive-acne-melanoma-risk/