According to data from the Cancer Registry at the Ministry of Health, 144 new patients are diagnosed each month and 17 people die from melanoma skin cancer, which constitutes 5% of all cancer cases in Israel.
In addition, in 2019, 1,719 new patients were discovered in Israel and 213 people died from the disease.
June will mark Skin Cancer Awareness Week in Israel.
The vast majority of patients (92.4%) are diagnosed with the disease at an early stage, before metastases form.
In recent years there has been a declining trend in morbidity (3.6% per year) among men, but not among women.
However, mortality trends are declining in women (2% per year) as a result of an increase in early detection.
In 2019, 1,818 Israelis were diagnosed with melanoma, and 92% were diagnosed early.
2.1% of patients were diagnosed with invasive tumor and regional spread, and 3.4% were diagnosed with metastatic tumor.
In an international comparison, Israel is in 22nd place in skin cancer morbidity, but in the lowest place (out of 31 countries) in mortality.
Among young people the disease is rare: only 12 patients were diagnosed under the age of 25. The highest morbidity rates were aged 75 and over.
In the years 1996-1996 there was a moderate increase of 1% per year in the diagnosis of invasive disease in men, but since 2014 there has been a significant decrease of 3.6%.
Among women, the morbidity rate is in a stable trend.
At the same time, the rate of early detection of melanoma has increased over the years, and there has also been an increase in the survival of melanoma patients.
Inbal Cohen Tuval, CEO of the Association for Skin Cancer: "The higher the awareness, the lower the morbidity data and we will be able to identify the patients at an early stage - and thus save their lives."
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