AUSTRALIA
The skin cancer prevention approach will be coordinated by the University of Queensland, in collaboration with Cancer Council Victoria. Queensland and Victoria are two of the most populous states in Australia with 5.3 and 6.6 million residents, respectively and a high number of skin cancers. Cancer Council Victoria is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation that seeks to promote a healthier community by reducing the incidence and impact of cancer in the Australian Victoria region. Australia has a long and successful history of skin cancer primary prevention programmes such as “Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek, Slide”105 and SunSmart106. Providing shade, encouraging sun protection using protective clothing, wide brimmed hats, sunglasses, and sunscreen on areas of the skin that cannot be otherwise protected have all been shown to be highly effective in reducing the exposure to UVR, reduce sunburn (the cardinal sign that UVR exposure exceeded safe thresholds) and has also been shown to be highly cost effective.
Cancer-related risk factors in their portfolio include (a) multiple evidence-based sun protection interventions: Electronic messaging such as Healthy Text (the first intervention programme tested in an attention-control randomised trial),108,109 and Sun Text (using interactive messaging)110,111 have shown to increase sun protection attitudes, intentions and behaviours, reducing sunburn especially in hard to reach populations such as the youth. Healthy Text was accepted as a research-tested intervention by the National Cancer Institute programme.112 From these studies, an evidence-based database of over 125 research-tested messages is available, which can be adapted and tested for implementation in Europe; The SunSmart app is an evidence based technological application that allows the population to obtain up to date weather and UV Index information, which indicates the times of the day during which sun protection is required.113–115 (b) cervical cancer prevention: UQ will also contribute interventions to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer, providing access for partners to a research tested intervention for women from immigrant background who are at high risk of low uptake of prevention strategies.116,117