Potential Health Risks of Sunscreen - Clinical Study

Clinical Study

In 2008, a clinical study showed that the application of sunscreen prevents squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and actinic keratosis. The study included 60 transplant patients who received immunosuppression, a group of persons with a particularly high risk to develop skin cancer. The patients were very compliant, using sunscreen 5.6 days per week on average. The control group was recruited retrospectively and consisted of 60 transplant patients equally matched for age, skin type and kind of transplant organ. The control group had been instructed to use sunscreen as well, but were not provided with cost-free sunscreen and showed very poor compliance.

After 24 months, the sunscreen group showed a 53% reduction of actinic keratosis, while the control group showed an increase of 38%. The difference in the development of SCC and BCC were also highly significant. Non-significant results included a slight decrease of herpes and warts and a slight increase in acne in the sunscreen group.

In 2011, Australian researchers found that the regular application of sunscreen with a sun protection factor of 15 or more during a 5-year treatment period reduced the incidence of new primary melanomas during a subsequent 10-year follow-up period. However an accompanying editorial found the statistics unconvincing. In May 2011 the same journal (Journal of Clinical Oncology) published an editorial by Michael A. Goldenhersh and Meni Koslowsky entitled Increased Melanoma After Regular Sunscreen Use? which found that the areas of the skin which had been treated with sunscreen had non-significantly more melanomas than the untreated controls.