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Skin Cancer Prevention
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Avoiding risk factors and increasing protective factors may help prevent cancer.
Avoiding cancer risk factors such as smoking, being overweight, and lack of exercise may help prevent certain cancers. Increasing protective factors such as quitting smoking, eating a healthy diet, and exercising may also help prevent some cancers. Talk to your doctor or other health care professional about how you might lower your risk of cancer.
Being exposed to ultraviolet radiation is a risk factor that may increase
the risk of skin cancer.
Studies suggest that being exposed to ultraviolet (UV)
radiation and the sensitivity of a person’s skin to UV radiation are risk factors for skin cancer. UV radiation is the name for the invisible rays
that are part of the energy that comes from the sun. Sunlamps and tanning
booths also give off UV radiation.
Risk factors for nonmelanoma and melanoma cancers are not the same:
- Nonmelanoma skin cancer: The total amount
of time the skin is exposed to UV radiation may affect the risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer.
Spending more time in the sun may increase the risk. People may have an increased risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer if their skin burns easily in the sun.
- Melanoma skin cancer: Being exposed to strong UV radiation for short periods (as with sunburns), especially in
childhood and teen years, may increase the risk of melanoma. People
may have an increased risk of melanoma from UV radiation if they burn
easily in the sun or have freckles or a lot of moles.
It is not known if protecting skin from sunlight and other UV radiation decreases the risk of skin cancer.
It is not known if nonmelanoma skin cancer risk is decreased by staying out of the sun, using sunscreens, or wearing long sleeve shirts, long pants, sun hats, and sunglasses when outdoors.
Sunscreen may help decrease
the amount of UV radiation to the skin. One study found that wearing sunscreen can help prevent actinic keratoses, scaly patches of skin that may become squamous cell carcinoma.
However, the use of sunscreen has not been proven to lower the risk of melanoma skin cancer.
Although protecting the skin and eyes from the sun has not been proven to lower the chance of getting skin cancer, skin experts suggest the following:
- Use sunscreen that protects against UV radiation.
- Do not stay out in the sun for long periods of time, especially when the sun is at its strongest.
- Wear long sleeve shirts, long pants, sun hats, and sunglasses, when outdoors.
Cancer prevention clinical trials are used to study ways
to prevent cancer.
Cancer prevention clinical trials are used to study ways to
lower the risk of developing certain types of cancer. Some
cancer prevention trials are conducted with healthy people who
have not had cancer but who have an increased risk for cancer.
Other prevention trials are conducted with people who have had
cancer and are trying to prevent another cancer of the same type
or to lower their chance of developing a new type of cancer.
Other trials are done with healthy volunteers who are not known
to have any risk factors for cancer.
The purpose of some cancer prevention clinical trials is to
find out whether actions people take can prevent cancer. These
may include eating fruits and vegetables, exercising, quitting
smoking, or taking certain medicines, vitamins, minerals, or
food supplements.
New ways to prevent skin cancer are being studied in clinical
trials.
Clinical trials are taking place in many parts of the country.
Information about clinical trials can be found in the Clinical
Trials section of the NCI Web
site.
Check for clinical trials in NCI's PDQ Cancer Clinical Trials
Registry
for
skin cancer prevention trials that are now accepting patients.
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