Arizona Girl, 5, Diagnosed With Deadly Melanoma

Five-year-old Ashley Garcia of Phoenix, Ariz., has the deadliest form of skin cancer –- melanoma, the Arizona Republic reported Thursday. No longer a disease that affects just leather-skinned sun-worshippers, melanoma is targeting more young people. Melanoma diagnoses in young woman have increased 50 percent in recent years and 1 out of every 100 new diagnoses is in a person younger than under age 18. Still, Ashley’s physician, Jeffrey Goldstein, a pediatric plastic surgeon at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Ariz., said a case like this is rare and virtually without explanation. She is young and has not spent a lot of time outdoors so overexposure to the sun is unlikely. Plus, she has dark skin and melanoma often strikes people with light skin and blue eyes. “This is a very serious issue,” Goldstein told the Arizona... [read full story]