Link between UV and skin cancer
Source: Cancer Council, August 2024
Sun exposure
Excessive UV radiation damages DNA in skin cells producing genetic mutations that can lead to skin cancer. Sunlight is the main source of UV radiation and solariums are a source of artificial UV radiation. Solar radiation causes cutaneous malignant melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) of the skin.
Different patterns of sun exposure are associated with different types of skin cancer. Melanomas can arise in different ways, depending on a person’s genes. Some melanomas develop after chronic sun exposure, mostly on sun exposed areas of the body, whereas other melanomas can develop after modest amounts of sun exposure on less exposed areas of the body in people with genetic susceptibility to melanoma .
Sun exposure during childhood and adolescence has been shown to greatly impact an individual’s lifetime risk of developing skin cancer. Sun exposure in childhood has also been associated with melanoma . Intense sun exposure in the first 10 years of life has been shown to nearly double the lifetime risk of melanoma . In relation to KC, childhood and adolescent (intermittent and non-occupational) sun exposure increases the risk of BCC, while cumulative sun exposure, including occupational exposure, increases SCC risk. In Australia, both BCC and SCC rates are around three times higher in latitudes closer to the equator[7][8], where UV radiation is higher.