Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC) and Cleveland Metroparks have partnered to make it easier for people to prevent skin cancer. Free sunscreen will be available to all visitors at participating Cleveland Metroparks beaches and golf courses.
The project, "Be Sun Smart. Protect Your Skin with Sunscreen!" is supported by MetroHealth, the park district’s official healthcare sponsor.
Park visitors should look for the free-standing, no-touch dispensers featuring a bright orange and yellow sunburst with messaging in both Spanish and English at the following lakefront and lifeguard stations: Edgewater Beach, Huntington Beach, Euclid Beach, Wallace Lake, and Ledge Pool. Golf courses with dispensers include Big Met, Little Met, Ironwood, Manakiki, Mastick Woods, Seneca, Shawnee Hills, Sleepy Hollow, and Washington. The complimentary sunscreen has a sun protection factor of (SPF) 30. A QR code on each dispenser links to the sunscreen ingredients and Case CCC website for more information on melanoma and skin cancer protection.
According to Case CCC Director Gary Schwartz, MD, a medical oncologist at both University Hospitals and Cleveland Clinic, Vice Dean of Oncology, and the Gertrude Donnelly Hess MD Professor in Oncology Research at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, skin cancer is the most common, yet often most preventable, cancer in the United States and Ohio.
A report by Case CCC Population and Cancer Prevention member Johnie Rose, MD, PhD, indicates that age-adjusted rates for melanoma—the deadliest form of skin cancer—are 14% higher in northeast Ohio than nationally, and deaths caused by melanoma are almost 10% higher than the national average*.
"Melanoma is caused by the sun," said Schwartz. "If you have light-colored skin, you are considered at high risk. The more sunburns a person has, the greater the risk of cancer. It is preventable by protecting one’s skin with either sunscreen or protective clothing. For a man with a balding head, a cap is essential."
Schwartz said the increase in melanoma in the community was concerning.
"We do not know the exact reason for the increasing incidence in northeast Ohio, but not using sunscreen can be a culprit," he said. "The liberal use of sunscreens is one of the few things we can do to prevent what can become an incurable disease."
Skin cancer does not discriminate. African American men and women also can develop melanoma, especially on the parts of the body with less pigmentation, such as the palms of the hands and bottoms of the feet.
"One thing we can say for sure is that by using sunscreen regularly, the incidence of skin cancers— particularly melanoma—will decline," Schwartz said. "This is true of every community."
Case CCC, a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, facilitates the cancer funding, education, and research activities of Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals, and Cleveland Clinic—three of the largest biomedical research and healthcare institutions in Ohio. Since 1987, it has received continuous funding from NCI to make possible the integration of patient care, cancer research, education, and prevention activities nationally and globally, with a specific focus on the four million individuals in the 15 northeast Ohio counties it serves.
*Case CCC catchment center data is from the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System (OCISS), Ohio's state cancer registry run by the Ohio Department of Health. National data comes from National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program and Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR), with a combined 99% coverage of the U.S. population. The data is reported by hospitals to state and regional cancer registries. Nearly every cancer registry in the country captures more than 95% of cases due to the mandatory nature of reporting. Death data comes from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.