Skin cancer prevention: The problem, responses, and lessons learned

Skin cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer and has rapidly incre ased during the past three-decades in the United States; More than 1 millio n new cases of skin cancer are estimated to be diagnosed in the United Stat es each year. The National Skin Cancer Prevention Education Program (NSCPEP ) was launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1 994 as a national effort to address the Healthy People : 2000 objectives fo r skin cancer prevention. The NSCPEP is a comprehensive, multidimensional p ublic health approach that includes (1) primary prevention interventions; ( 2) coalition and partnership development; (3) health communications and edu cation; and (4) surveillance, research, and evaluation. In 1994, through su pport from the CDC, state health departments in Arizona, California Georgia , Hawaii, and Massachusetts initiated primary prevention intervention proje cts to conduct and evaluate skin cancer prevention education. This article discusses the comprehensive, multidimensional public health approach highli ghting examples from the state demonstration projects.