Article review date
10 September 2025
Article published date
25 July 2025
Summary
This article discussed the current state of knowledge on skin cancer prevention in relation to sunscreen use. The article first provides an overview of the established causative link between ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure and skin cancer as well as the associated burden of disease. It also describes the efficacy of sunscreen use in preventing skin cancer noting significantly reduced risk for skin cancer among sunscreen users. The larger portion of the article discusses finer details of sunscreen use and clinical recommendations for health practitioners in addition to highlighting challenges.
The study highlights that outdoor workers, children under two years old, people with deeply pigmented skin or, conversely, oculocutaneous albinism and the immunocompromised require tailored sun protection advice. A lack of high-quality research investigating sunscreen use in people with diverse skin tones, particularly those with deeply pigmented skin, poses challenges when making clinical recommendations for these populations especially with respect to balancing the harms and benefits of sun exposure. The article also notes that general sun protection behaviours remain driven by warm conditions rather than objective measures like the UV index, leaving people vulnerable to UV overexposure that can easily occur on cold, overcast and cloudy days.
Published in
British Medical Journal
Link to article
Skin cancer prevention and sunscreens
ARPANSA commentary
Skin cancer is a major public health problem in Australia with two-thirds of Australians receiving a skin cancer diagnosis in their lifetime where 95% of all melanomas are attributed to UV overexposure (Whiteman et al. 2015, Armstrong & Kricker 1993). Although advances in treatment for melanoma have aided in reducing mortality, the incidence rates in Australia remain some of the highest in the world (De Pinto et al., 2024; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2024).
The conclusions of the article relating to the high efficacy of sunscreens agrees with other reviews (Sander et al., 2020), including those published by ARPANSA (Henderson et al., 2022). However, it is important to remember that, as noted in the article, sunscreen is just one of the five sun protection principles and should not be relied on exclusively for sun protection. ARPANSA recommends following all five sun protection principles whenever the UV index is over three.
The article correctly identifies limited research into all factors of sunscreen use among people with deeply pigmented skin. Although this causes associated challenges in providing sun protection advice, the Australian Skin and Skin Cancer Research Centre has recently published a position statement on balancing the harms and benefits of sun exposure which contains sun exposure recommendations that vary depending on a person’s skin type, location in Australia and the time of year. The position statement can be used in conjunction with knowledge of the UV index or the SunSmart Global UV application to make well-informed decisions on sun exposure.
