The world owes a great deal to a dedicated group of skin cancer researchers and the incredible community spirit of a little coastal town called Nambour in Queensland, Australia.
Their tireless work over a 20-year period beginning in 1986, is saving our skin and saving lives.
This video captures key moments in this remarkable story, as Professor Adèle Green AC and the QIMR Berghofer-led research team supported by its band of volunteers, undertook a world-first, five-year intervention trial in the early 1990s.
They didn’t realise it at the time, but this research would make dozens of landmark discoveries, including the breakthrough finding that daily sunscreen use can prevent deadly melanomas.
This evidence has gone on to underpin public health policies and skin cancer prevention campaigns in Australia and around the world.
There’s been a remarkable change in sun exposure behaviour, and melanoma rates have decreased among under 40-year-olds.
Credits: Some footage in this video is provided courtesy of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The researchers are grateful for the support of the late Harry Williams, who had the foresight to capture the Nambour Skin Cancer Prevention Trial in action between 1992 and 1996, and provided footage to the team. It is a special record of what can
happen when researchers and the community work together.
Melanoma Research Leaders
Alongside this pioneering epidemiological research, QIMR Berghofer has been at the forefront of other key areas of melanoma research over the past four decades, including
unlocking the genetics of melanoma.
Professor Nicholas Hayward played a significant role in identifying
the genes that predispose families and the general population, and the genetic changes associated with melanoma development.
These findings have been translated into clinical practice improving the lives of at-risk individuals and families, and leading to clinical trials of treatments for melanoma and other cancers.
While survival rates have improved, advanced melanoma still claims more Australian lives each year than the national road toll.
For QIMR Berghofer cancer epidemiologist, Professor David Whiteman AM, prevention remains the ‘Holy Grail’.
It’s why he launched the QSkin Study in 2010, which is the world’s largest prospective study of skin cancer with more than 43,000 participants. That data has enabled the development of the Melanoma Risk Prediction Calculator, a free online tool where individuals can work out their risk of developing melanoma.
The QSkin Study is an unparalleled resource helping scientists investigate the causes of melanoma and other cancers, and continuing the QIMR Berghofer legacy of world-class skin cancer research leading to better health and wellbeing for all.