• More than 2.1 million people contract skin cancer every year with more than 3.5 million cases of skin cancer diagnosed.

• Each year more skin cancer cases are diagnosed than the combined incidence of lung, prostate, breast and colon cancers.

• Between 40 and 50 percent of Americans who live to age 65 will contract skin cancer at least once.

• An estimated 68,720 cases of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, were diagnosed in 2009.

• More than 11,500 people die from skin cancers in the United States each year.

• Of the 11,500 deaths from skin cancer, about 8,600 are from melanoma.

• Exposure to tanning beds before the age of 35 increases the risk of melanoma by 75%.

• More than one million people visit tanning salons every day. Of these, approximately 71% are girls and young women aged 16-29.

• People who use tanning beds are 2.5 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma.

• Young women, under the age of 39, have a higher probability of developing melanoma than any other cancer except breast cancer.

• Ninety percent of pediatric melanoma cases occur in girls aged 10-19.

• Melanoma is the most common for of cancer for adolescents and young adults 15-29 years old.

• When diagnosed early, 99% of melanoma patients survive longer than 5 years.

• Melanoma can be completely cured when diagnosed early.

• Squamous cell carcinoma is the most common skin cancer among African Americans and Asian Indians.

• Most non-melanoma skin cancers are related to sun exposure.

(Sources:  The Skin Cancer Foundation and The American Cancer Society)