A Model Community Skin Cancer Prevention Project in Maine

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) defines skin cancer as a disease in which abnormal cells divide uncontrollably in the outer layers of the skin (1). The American Cancer Society's Facts and Figures 2001 (the latest year for which these figures are available) estimated that more than 1 million cases of highly curable basal cell or squamous cell cancers would be diagnosed in the United States that year (2). An estimated 9800 U.S. deaths from cancer were projected as well: 7800 from melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, and 2000 from other skin cancers. Melanoma was expected to be diagnosed in about 51,400 Americans in 2001. The incidence rate of melanoma has increased about 3% per year on average since 1981. In 2002, NCI announced that researchers showed for the first time that individual risk of melanoma is associated with the intensity of sunlight that a person receives over a lifetime (3).