Skin Cancer Prevention Strategies

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) has been identified as the primary etiologic agent for the induction and promotion of most skin cancers. The first associations between solar UVR and skin cancer were acknowledged by the scientific community in 1927. Since then, increasing evidence for the role of UVR in the causation of skin cancer has resulted in the listing of solar and artificial UVR as a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 1992. Broad spectrum (UVA and UVB) UVR was categorized as a human carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program in 2005. UVR from the sun causes approximately 90% of malignant melanomas and non-melanoma (basal cell carcinoma [BCC] and squamous cell carcinoma [SCC]) skin cancers [1]. The non-melanoma skin cancers make up one third of all cancers around the world [2]. According to the National Cancer Institute, in the United States melanoma has one of the fastest increasing incidence rates. It is estimated that more than two million new cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed in 2012 [3-5]. Prevention of skin cancer is possible since UVR is known to be the central causative agent. National educational programs have emerged globally to deliver the message that unprotected sun exposure increases the risk for developing skin cancer, and present multiple behaviors that when followed together reduce the risk of photocarcinogenesis.