Research Article

Worldwide Increasing Incidences of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma

Figure 4

(a) The SEER 9 data from 1975 to 2007 indicates a linear increasing incidence in CMM ( is 0.9954). Five years of data was averaged to obtain each data point, for example, the data point for 1975 includes averaged data from 1973 to 1977. If the data is plotted out year by year the trend line and values indicate it is a linear increase since 1973. Even if we add the IARC data for 1960, 1965, and 1970 to the SEER data, the incidence is still increasing in a linear manner from 1960 to 2005. (b) However, if one adds in the data for Connecticut and New York State extending it back 6 decades to 1940, then the increase appears to be exponential ( is 0.9755) rather than linear ( is now 0.9189).
858425.fig.004a
(a)
858425.fig.004b
(b)