Latitude, coastal or interior location and the evolution of the melanoma epidemic in the United States.

Estimates derived from linear models fitted to melanoma death rates at successive time periods for the contiguous states of the US suggest that, allowing for latitude, rates are higher in the coastal than in the interior states. The effect of latitude on melanoma death rates in the white population of the US is decreasing and will shortly be gone. This decrease is slower in the interior states than in the coastal ones. The deceleration of the rate change is most marked in the states with the highest rates, so that latitude may be regarded as a determinant of the initial rate for each state, while the subsequent change in rate is a function of that initial rate. Melanoma death rates appear to be stabilizing at levels that are unaffected by latitude.