Skin cancer research
This page of the non melanoma skin cancer section is about research into the causes, prevention and treatments of skin cancer. There is information on
Skin cancer research
All treatments must be fully researched before they can be adopted as standard treatment for everyone. This is so that we can be sure they work better than the treatments we already use. And so we know that they are safe.
First of all, treatments are developed and tested in laboratories. Only after we know that they are likely to be safe to test are they tested in people, in clinical trials.
Researchers are looking into preventing and finding skin cancers, genetics, retinoids and creams to treat skin cancer.
All treatments have to be fully researched before they can be adopted as standard treatment for everyone. This is so that
- We can be sure they work
- We can be sure they work better than the treatments that are available at the moment
- They are known to be safe
First, treatments are developed and tested in laboratories. For ethical and safety reasons, experimental treatments must be tested in the laboratory before they can be tried in people. If a treatment described here is said to be at the laboratory stage of research, it is not ready for patients and is not available either within or outside the NHS.
Tests in patients are called clinical trials. The trials and research section has information about what trials are including information about the 4 phases of trials. If you are interested in taking part in a clinical trial, click the button on the left of your screen to visit our searchable database of clinical trials recruiting in the UK. There tend to be few in skin cancer, as it is relatively easy to treat and cure. If there is a trial you are interested in, print it off and take it to your own specialist. If the trial is suitable for you, your doctor will need to make the referral to the research team.
All the new approaches covered here are the subject of ongoing research. Until studies are completed and new effective treatments are found, these treatments cannot be used as standard therapy for non melanoma skin cancers.
Most skin cancers are preventable. If we can find a way to successfully educate people not to go out in the sun without protection we could prevent the majority of skin cancers.
Late in 2002, the UK Health Departments commissioned Cancer Research UK to run a national skin cancer prevention awareness campaign. The campaign called Sunsmart, was launched in March 2003 and continues to run providing a platform upon which to base a long term sun awareness campaign allowing us to measure its benefits.
Cancer Research UK commissioned the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to carry out a sun protection survey in March 2003. This survey was designed to measure
- Knowledge about ways to prevent skin cancer
- Attitudes to tanning and the dangers of the sun
- How people protect themselves in the sun
You can download the results from the ONS 2003 survey from the Cancer Research UK website. There is also information about several local projects to help raise awareness of sun protection that were run throughout the UK in 2003.
Look in the about skin cancer section of CancerHelp UK for lots of information about how to protect your skin from the sun. You can also get information on the Cancer Research UK's Sunsmart website including information about the campaigns that are going on to raise awareness.
Retinoids are chemicals similar to vitamin A. Some studies have shown that these drugs may help with treating non melanoma skin cancers. Tretinoin is a type of retinoid sometimes used to treat solar keratosis. It can be applied to the area in a cream. It works by encouraging the cancerous cells to change back into normal cells.
Acitretin is another retinoid that is given in tablet form to people who have repeated skin cancers. It may help prevent new skin cancers from forming.
These drugs do have side effects. They can cause redness and skin peeling. This usually settles down within a couple of days. You should not
- Go out in the sun whilst you are having this treatment
- Have retinoid treatment if you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant because it can cause severe birth defects
- Give blood while you are having retinoid treatment
- Although there have been some promising results from using retinoids, more research is needed before we know the exact role of these drugs in treating skin cancers
Imiquimod cream (Aldara) is a new treatment which has been approved to treat the most common type of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma (BCC). The cream stimulates the immune system to attack the cancer. Studies have shown it may be of great benefit to people with small, early stage BCC. It has not been approved for nodular BCC.
Cancer Research UK funded a 5 year clinical trial to investigate the effectiveness of imiquimod cream on both superficial and nodular basal cell carcinoma (BCC). This trial has now closed and we are waiting for the results.
There is more information about imiquimod cream in this section of CancerHelp UK.
Scientists now know that the ultraviolet light from the sun damages your DNA. These changes in your DNA cause normal skin cells to become cancerous. Scientists are using this information to develop new treatments for skin cancers.
Each region of the UK has a cancer registry. They each keep statistics about how many people get different types of cancers, including skin cancer. Doctors call this 'cancer incidence rates'. This type of information helps the Department of Health to plan for local and national health needs for particular cancers. And, also to see if prevention campaigns increase or decrease incidence rates of skin cancer.
But regions don't always collect this information in the same way. So overall statistics for the UK may not always be very accurate. In 1991 a study found that there was a big difference in the way each cancer register collected information about skin cancer incidence.
In 2000, researchers asked all UK cancer registries how they collected information about skin cancer cases and for their latest available incidence figures. The researchers assessed the information that the registries gave them using national standards for collecting this type of information. Now most cancer registries collect their information in a similar way. But there is still room for improvement. Results of this study were published in the May 2004 issue of the medical journal called 'Clinical and Experimental Dermatology'.
Diclofenac is an anti inflammatory drug. It is used as a cream and has been used in the treatment of actinic keratosis. The results of two studies have shown some response to this treatment. These two studies used it for different lengths of time, one for 60 days another for 90 days. Doctors don't fully understand how it works, or how well it works and further research is needed.
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