How sun exposure causes skin cancer: an epidemiological perspective

Abstract

It has been widely accepted since early in the 20th Century that sun exposure is a cause of BCC and SCC in humans [1]. That human melanoma is also caused by sun exposure was not suggested until the early 1950s, and is still not accepted by some, or the relationship is described as controversial or complex [2,3]. Nevertheless, an expert working group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded, in 1992, ``There is sufficient evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of solar radiation. Solar radiation causes cutaneous malignant melanoma and non-melanocytic skin cancer'' [4].