Regular use of SPF 15+ sunscreen may prevent the development of melanoma in adults, results of a community-based study indicate. The study is the first prospective, randomized study of the relationship between sunscreen use and melanoma.
Adèle Green and her colleagues of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Australia, randomized 1621 white adults (25 to 75 years of age) living in a township in Queensland to daily or discretionary sunscreen application to head and arms; the broad-spectrum sunscreen used had a SPF of 16.
Ten years after the end of the study, 11 primary new melanomas had been identified in the group that used sunscreen daily compared with 22 whose use of sunscreen was discretionary. The incidence of invasive melanomas was reduced by 73% (three in the daily sunscreen group versus 11 in the control group).
The authors note that their findings, reported in the December 6, 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, are of borderline statistical significance and should be interpreted cautiously. An accompanying editorial, however, points out that “the trial’s findings are the first to provide strong evidence for a reduction in the incidence of invasive melanoma after regular application of broad-spectrum sunscreen in adults.”