For many years Australia has been seen as the world leader in invasive melanomas. A recent survey by the QMIR Berghofer Medical Research Institute’s Cancer Control Group, reported by the ABC, shows that Australians have become more ‘sun-smart’, causing their rate of invasive melanoma to decline. It was also shown in this survey that New Zealand’s invasive melanoma rate is increasing and possibly will not start declining until after 2017.
Even though Australia’s rate is declining the survey shows that the overall rate is still increasing, possibly because the sun damage in older people was sustained before the prevention campaigns became popular. Professor David Whiteman commented that “While it's good news that average melanoma rates have started to fall, the fact that the actual number of cases is still rising is bad news.”
Read more about this survey in the recent ABC article found at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-30/new-zealand-has-worst-rate-invasive-melanomas-over-australia/7283676
PHOTO: Australia's melanoma rates are predicted to keep falling. (Wikimedia commons)
