RESEARCH STUDY

Regular sunscreen use reduces melanoma (RCT follow-up, 2011)

2011
RCT
1621
High

One-line finding

Adults assigned to daily sunscreen had about half the rate of new melanoma over 10 years of follow-up.

Plain-language summary

In Australia, 1,621 adults were randomly assigned to apply sunscreen every day or to use it as they wished. Ten years after the trial ended, the daily group had fewer new melanomas, and about a 50% lower rate of invasive melanoma. This is one of the few randomized trials to show sunscreen can lower skin cancer risk. The numbers of cases were small, so the exact size of the benefit is less certain.

Citation

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