Abstract
Half of all cancers in the United States are skin cancers. We have previously shown in a 4.5-year randomized controlled trial in an Australian community that squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) but not basal cell carcinomas (BCC) can be prevented by regular sunscreen application to the head, neck, hands, and forearms. Since cessation of the trial, we have followed participants for a further 8 years to evaluate possible latency of preventive effect on BCCs and SCCs. After prolonged follow-up, BCC tumor rates tended to decrease but not significantly in people formerly randomized to daily sunscreen use compared with those not applying sunscreen daily. By contrast, corresponding SCC tumor rates were significantly decreased by almost 40% during the entire follow-up period (rate ratio, 0.62; 95% confidence interval, 0.38-0.99). Regular application of sunscreen has prolonged preventive effects on SCC but with no clear benefit in reducing BCC. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(12):2546–8)
- cancer prevention
- community based randomised trial
- Melanoma/skin cancers
- Behavioral Prevention Research
Footnotes
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Grant support: National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia grants 199600 and 974009, National Health and Medical Research Council Capacity Building Grant in Population Health Research grant 252834 (J.C. van der Pols), and Department of Health and Ageing, Australia.
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
- Accepted October 9, 2006.
- Received May 2, 2006.
- Revision received September 15, 2006.
Volume 15, Issue 12
