Researchers estimate that Queenslanders in mid-life undergo about 1.5 million skin cancer procedures a year. The figure comes from a QIMR Berghofer study that followed more than 40,000 residents aged 40 to 69 for eight years.
It found that 70 per cent of participants used at least one skin cancer service. More than a third had one or more non-melanoma skin cancers cut out. Half had at least one skin biopsy, 34 per cent had a mole or spot removed to rule out melanoma, and five per cent had a melanoma excised. Eight per cent were admitted to hospital for treatment.
The study was led by QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and Cancer Council Queensland. It drew on Medical Benefits Schedule, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Queensland hospital admission data for people in QSkin, described as the world’s largest study into skin cancer. The results appeared in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
What it cost
Participants underwent about 245,000 procedures over the eight years, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $43 million. Set against government spending on the same people for other conditions, skin cancer made up about 2.4 per cent of direct healthcare costs.
The 1.5 million estimate rests on the state’s population of two million people aged 40 to 69 in 2025. The researchers put the annual total at about 1.49 million procedures and say the cost runs to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The heaviest users of these services tended to be older, male, privately insured and less educated than people who used none.
Calls for prevention
Daniel Lindsay, a Cancer Council Queensland economist and the lead author, said prevention campaigns are the most cost-effective way to cut the bill. “We know what the main risk factor is for skin cancer, it’s being exposed to the sun, and that can be prevented,” he said.
He also pointed to social media. “We’re seeing TikTok influencers who are starting to promote tanning as a good thing,” Dr Lindsay said, adding that this could push up skin cancer rates in Australia in future. He wants tanning to look less appealing to Australians again.
Senior author David Whiteman, of QIMR Berghofer, called the findings a “wake-up call” and asked for more targeted campaigns. “Skin cancer prevention has never been easy. It’s always been challenging,” he said. Messages now have to cross a fragmented media landscape and reach people who do not speak English as a first language, people in remote and outback communities, and people in offices and other workplaces.
A second study on low sun
The release coincided with separate QIMR Berghofer research led by Rachel Neale, on which Professor Whiteman is also an author. Published in Photochemistry and Photobiology, it exposed six areas on the lower backs of 55 healthy adults aged 18 to 55 to ultraviolet rays over four days. Even the lower doses, too weak to turn the skin pink, caused detectable DNA damage.
That runs against decades of thinking that early or late sun does no harm. Professor Whiteman said repeated “incremental, incidental UV exposure” builds up and could lead to mutations that start a cancer.
Vinod Gopalan, a molecular cancer pathologist at Griffith University, called it a good study for encouraging sunscreen use. But he noted it had “only got 55 participants” and said larger studies with more diverse groups are needed. He welcomed the cost study, because it looked beyond melanoma. “Non-melanoma skin cancers are much higher in number,” he said.
Sources
- 'Wake-up call': Research reveals Queensland's skin cancer burden
- QSkin study reveals skin cancer cost blowout – Medical Republic
