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To the Editor: In their study on the rising incidence of basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas in people younger than 40 years, Dr Christenson and colleagues¹ cite increased exposure to UV light as a possible cause. Sunscreen itself may play a causal role in the increased exposure to UV light. Whether sunscreen is protective against melanoma has been questioned.^2-3 It is difficult to study the relationship between sun exposure as a child and skin cancer 20 to 40 years later. Although it seems that the skin cancer risk resulting from 1 hour in the sun with sunscreen is lower than that from 1 hour in the sun without sunscreen, the use of sunscreen appears to have been increasing in the past 10 to 20 years, and nonmelanoma and melanoma skin cancer rates are also increasing.^{1, 4} It is possible that because of sunscreen use, the aggregate sun exposure time per . . . [Full Text of this Article]

David Neely, MD
DNeely@nmh.org
Division of General Internal Medicine
Department of Medicine
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Chicago, Ill

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