Why it would be a mistake to dismiss non-melanoma skin cancer

2 min read

Why it would be a mistake to dismiss non-melanoma cancer

Melanoma gets the headlines, and for good reason, with a mortality rate at around 10% it is far higher than all other forms of skin cancer, sitting at less than 1% overall.

However, this focus on mortality rates has made people think that only melanoma is serious and that other forms of skin cancer are nothing to worry about.

So, you might be surprised to hear that as many Australians die from non-melanoma skin cancers each year as they do from melanoma.

What are non-melanoma skin cancers? Non-melanoma skin cancer includes basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Typically, BCC account for 70% and SCC for 29%, with rare forms of non-melanoma skin cancers making up the remaining 1%.

PWC predicts that around 1,700 Australian’s will die from non-melanoma skin cancer in 2020 (this compares to 1,400-2,000 melanoma related deaths in Australia per annum). Sadly, that translates to around 4 people dying each day in Australia due to non-melanoma skin cancer.

You might be wondering, but if I’ve been led to believe that non-melanoma skin cancer is far less serious then how can the death numbers be so high? The reason is because non-melanoma skin cancers are common. Around 570,000 non-melanoma skin cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2020 in Australia alone.

The best way to prevent sunburn, skin ageing and skin cancer is to wear UPF 50+ sun protective clothing, broad brim sun hats and apply sunscreen to any remaining exposed skin with a SPF of at least 30.

Solbari offers a range of sun protection products including UPF50+ clothing, sun hats and accessories including UPF50+ arm sleeves, sun protection umbrellas and many more specialist sun protective products.

You can find out more about Solbari's certified UPF50+ sun protective range by clicking the links below:
Women UPF50+
Men UPF50+
Sun hats UPF50+
Accessories UPF50+
Skin Check App

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