Skin cancer

Analysis and Comment (7)

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Sunscreen shouldn’t be your only defence against the sun – clothing, hats, sunglasses and shade are equally important. Flickr/stray kat

Sunscreen, skin cancer and the Australian summer

By Terry Slevin, Cancer Council Australia

With the long, hot Australian summer comes the imperative to manage the country’s enormous skin cancer risk. Along with the growing raw numbers (11,545 skin cancer cases diagnosed in 2009) and rates of…
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During summer, most of us get adequate vitamin D from just a few minutes of daily sun exposure. AveLardo

Monday’s medical myth: we’re not getting enough sun

By Ian Olver, Cancer Council Australia

Myths abound about UV radiation and its effect on our health. We hear that sun-protection has triggered an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency; being tanned protects you from sunburn; a tan looks healthy;…
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Reduced ozone means increased UV radiation, and that leads to skin cancer. Tracey Lawson

Saving the ozone layer saved human lives

By Olaf Morgenstern, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and Peter Braesicke, University of Cambridge

SAVING THE OZONE: Part seven in our series exploring on the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer – dubbed “the world’s most successful environmental agreement” – explains how the…
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The best way to guard against skin cancer remains covering up – and using sun screen. Flickr/neloqua

Can Vitamin A reduce the risk of skin cancer in women?

By Justin Norrie, The Conversation

A study that suggests vitamin A could reduce the risk of melanoma should be treated with caution, according to Australian cancer experts who say the results are inconclusive and involve potentially toxic…
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It’s clear that some people are just more predisposed to getting melanoma with the same level sun exposure than others. Andrey/Wikimedia Commonns

Understanding the genetic basis of melanoma

By Stuart MacGregor, Queensland Institute of Medical Research

An international study published today in Nature Genetics, has discovered two genetic variants that increase the risk of melanoma. Melanoma is not the most common type of skin cancer but it is one of…
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Sunbeds session pose a significant risk of developing melanomas that is completely avoidable. Froztbyte/Wikimedia Commons

Not a sunny outlook: tighter sunbed regulation is long overdue

By Ross MacKenzie

Before she died in September 2007 of melanoma attributed to solarium tanning sessions, 26-year-old Clare Oliver waged a public campaign from her hospital bed to raise awareness of the risks of using sunbeds…

Research and News (5)

Research Briefs (3)

Melanoma treatment may double lifespan

The New England Journal of Medicine

A new treatment may prolong the lifespan of melanoma patients. Vemurafenib, the first acute melanoma drug in more than a…

Smoking associated with skin cancer

University of South Florida and Moffitt Cancer Center

Women with non-melanoma skin cancers are more likely to have smoked cigarettes than women without skin cancer. Study results…

Mutant gene boosts melanoma risk

Westmead Millenium Institute for Medical Research

Australian researchers have discovered that about 200,000 Australians carry a mutant gene that increases their melanoma risk…

Participants (23)