SKIN CANCER: CASES ARE RISING. WHAT CAN WE DO?

Annual cases are expected to reach 2.7 million by 2040

- HAYLEY BENNETT

Recent reports suggest skin cancer rates are rising. The harmful effects of the UV radiation in sunlight, and emitted by tanning beds, are well established - UV damages the DNA in skin cells, leading to errors as these cells replicate and grow.

But we've been warned for decades about the dangers of spending too much time in the sun or on sunbeds. So why is the message not sinking in?

While recent news has focused on the UK, Dr Zoë Venables, dermatology clinical lead at the National Disease Registration Service, confirms that the increase in diagnoses is more widespread than that.

"Across the UK and globally, skin cancer incidence is increasing in fair-skinned populations," she says.

Data published this year shows that, in the UK, over 224,000 people were diagnosed with skin cancer in 2019, an increase of more than a quarter compared to 2013, when there fewer than 178,000 new diagnoses.

These numbers include both melanoma, which affects the pigment-containing cells involved in tanning, as well as other, more treatable types of cancer affecting other cells in the outer layer (epidermis) of the skin.

It's worth noting that non-melanoma skin cancers, although less deadly, affect far more people and therefore still cause large numbers of deaths.