HILTON HEAD, S.C., Jun 05 (Reuters Health) - Worldwide, men get the deadly skin cancer melanoma more often, and are more likely to die from it, but young women may catch up, thanks to their affinity for tanning salons, a researcher reported here Sunday.

Exposure to sunlamps or sunbeds was listed as having a potential association with melanoma by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in its most recent report on cancer-causing materials, issued in early May.

And, the NIH said solar radiation is a definite carcinogen, and tanning beds expose users to the same rays that are beamed down by the sun, said Dr. Marie-France Demierre of Boston University Medical School in Massachusetts.

She said she expects a potential epidemic of melanoma in women, citing statistics from the study showing that 71 percent of tanning bed users aged 16 to 29 were female. And, said Demierre, most sun damage occurs before age 20, when people deny the dangers and the skin is most vulnerable.

It is alarming because melanoma tends to strike young, robbing people of their productive years, said Demierre, who spoke at the Eighth Annual Congress on Women's Health & Gender-Based Medicine.

This year, the American Cancer Society estimates there will be 47,700 new cases of melanoma in America, with 7,700 deaths.

If Demierre is right and more women get melanoma, there would be a reversal of the current melanoma patterns, where men get the cancer more often. And, it is usually diagnosed later in men as well.

Studies from North America show that over the last 20 years, 75 percent of the melanoma diagnosed in men was at a very late stage, when the disease had spread, said Demierre. Thus, they are more likely to die from the disease.

It is not clear why men get more melanoma and are diagnosed later. But, said Demierre, studies have shown that men typically are reluctant to go to the doctor, and that they are not as aware of melanoma risk as women, and are less likely to seek free screening for the disease.

Some scientists have guessed that estrogen might help protect women from melanoma, or that the male chromosome might somehow make men more susceptible to the invading cancer cells. These theories are still being researched.

But, Demierre suggested, women might unwittingly be destroying their natural advantage through what she called "tanning bed addiction" and sun worship.