Melanoma Rate Could Be Reduced

We all know the benefits of using sunscreen — the slip, slop, slap messages have been driven home for decades.

But now for the first time, just how beneficial applying sunscreen is has been measured in a study by Brisbane’s QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.

The study found if all Australians used sunscreen regularly, the incidence of melanoma could be reduced by 34 per cent by 2031, which is more than 28,000 fewer people being diagnosed with melanoma.

Professor David Whiteman, head of the QIMR Berghofer’s Cancer Control Group, said a more realistic scenario would see the population increasing its sunscreen use by 5 per cent each year.

“Then we’d see a reduction of melanoma incidence of about 10 per cent,” he said.

“You might think it would be a higher figure but we know that sunscreen is not 100 per cent effective — no sunscreen is — so sunscreen still allows some of the sun’s rays to come through and cause damage to the skin.”

Ultraviolet radiation from sunlight is the major environmental cause of melanoma, with researchers estimating it causes between 63 per cent and 90 per cent of all melanoma cases.

Melanoma rates still rising in older Australians

Professor Whiteman said cancer prevention policies took decades to show their full effect, but Australia was already seeing the benefits of the sun smart campaigns that started in the 1980s.

“When we look at melanoma rates in different age groups of the population, we’re starting to see declines in melanoma rates in people under the age of 40,” he said.

“Yet they’re [melanoma rates are] still rising in older Australians — and rising very steeply in our oldest Australians — who are still unfortunately paying the price for sun exposure incurred in that post-war era.”

But he said it was never too late to start using sunscreen and that applying sunscreen in older age groups still had benefits.

Brisbane artist Tanja Stark should have been preparing for her upcoming art exhibition on Tuesday morning.

Instead, she was in surgery having a tiny mole — no more than 1 millimetre long — removed.

“I went off and had a biopsy last week — the doctor rang me on Wednesday and said this morning … it was confirmed and I needed to have the chop,” she said.

“It was surprising, but all I can say is I had a bit of an intuition, but by the same token you don’t kind of identify as someone that has cancer — it’s a big word.”

Ms Stark said that as a child of the 1970s and 1980s, sunscreen was foreign to her — reef oil was more her style.

“We actually thought burning and blistering was kind of a normal part of childhood — we would just peel each other’s skin every summer — who knew it wasn’t normal,” Ms Stark said.

Professor Whiteman’s study was published in the British Journal of Dermatology.

Source
ABC News

See also:
Outdoor Safety (Sun & Heat)
Safety & Risk Management