Wealthier people are more than twice as likely to develop the deadliest form of skin cancer, research suggests.

A study of more than 23,000 patients in Northern Ireland has shown a 20 per cent rise in patients suffering from skin cancer over a 12-year period.

The research, published today in the British Journal of Dermatology, showed that women living in richer areas were 29 per cent more likely than people living in disadvantaged areas to suffer from basal cell carcinoma, and 2½ times more likely to suffer from malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of the disease.

Men were 41 per cent more likely to suffer from basal cell carcinoma if they lived in an affluent area and 2½ times more likely to suffer from malignant melanoma.

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Every year there are estimated to be more than 100,000 cases of the more easily treated skin cancers in the UK, and just over 8,000 cases of malignant melanoma. The scientists, from the Royal Group of Hospitals and Queen’s University Belfast, said that two explanations were most likely – that middle-class people took more holidays in sunny places, or were simply more likely to go for treatment when they developed suspicious-looking damage to their skin. Olivia Dolan, a co-author of the study and consultant dermatologist at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, said: “It’s probably a combination of the two.”

Older people now developing skin cancers tend to be those from families who were rich enough to holiday overseas when they were young, when the skin is most vulnerable to such damage.

Analysis of the data, which came from the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry at Queen’s University Belfast and covered the period from 1993 to 2004, indicated a 20 per cent increase in patients and a 62 per cent increase in skin cancer samples processed by pathology laboratories.

Affluence did not seem to affect squamous cell carcinoma. This may be because numbers of this cancer were small, Dr Dolan said.

She added that the results showed that skin cancer incidence was systematically underestimated, because only the first instance was recorded and many patients developed multiple cancers. “It would be very helpful if every cancer were recorded,” she said.

Pregnant women are being urged to stay out of the sun to protect their unborn babies as well as themselves. The advice came from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in anticipation of a heat-wave this summer. Studies have suggested that babies can be affected by heat during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. One found that exposure to high temperatures at this time could lead to lower birth weight.

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