The largest sunscreen study ever conducted (470,000± people) just found sunscreen users had up to 292% higher risk of skin cancer.

What We Found

The study is real: a 2023 McGill University analysis of UK Biobank data (472,672 people) in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Its main focus was DNA-repair genes, not sunscreen.

It's observational, not a randomized trial. Frequent sunscreen users had more skin cancer, but that's a link, not proof that sunscreen causes cancer.

Confounding by indication: fair, burn-prone people and those who spend lots of time in the sun use more sunscreen, and some start after a diagnosis. Senior author Dr. Ivan Litvinov told Reuters and AAP the post misread the study.

In a randomized trial in Nambour, Australia (Green et al., J Clin Oncol 2011), 1,621 adults were assigned to daily or occasional sunscreen. Daily users had 11 melanomas vs. 22, and 73% fewer invasive melanomas.

Sources

1. UK Biobank study (PMC) (opens in new tab)
2. Reuters Fact Check (opens in new tab)
3. AAP FactCheck (opens in new tab)
4. Green et al., J Clin Oncol 2011 (opens in new tab)