Are Sunscreens Cost-Effective for the Prevention of Skin Cancer?

A modest investment in prevention produced substantial savings in illness-related costs.

Dermatologists routinely recommend regular application of sunscreens to people at risk for developing skin cancer. From a strictly economic standpoint, is the routine use of sunscreens cost-effective for the prevention of nonmelanoma skin cancers and premalignant actinic keratoses (AKs)? To address this issue, investigators employed data collected from a Queensland, Australia, community-based sunscreen prevention trial.

Of 1621 participants, 1383 (85%) remained in the trial for 5 years, 155 of whom developed at least one nonmelanoma skin cancer. Eleven fewer basal cell carcinomas developed in the group of daily sunscreen users than in intermittent users in a control group (94 vs. 105); the regular users also had 24 fewer squamous cell carcin…

Reviewing Author

Craig A. Elmets, MD

Disclosures

Consultant / Advisory board Astellas Pharmaceuticals

EquityVaxin

Grant / Research support NIH; NIH/NCI; Veteran’s Administration; Ferndale Laboratories; Kyowa Hakko Kirin Pharma, Inc.

Editorial boards Cancer Prevention Research; Photodermatology, Photoimmunology, & Photomedicine; UpToDate; eMedicine; Journal of Dermatological Sciences; JAMA Dermatology

Leadership positions in professional societies American Academy of Dermatology (Vice Chair, Committee on Science and Research); Photomedicine Society (Board of Directors)