Australia’s first national scorecard reveals widespread complacency and critical gaps in detection and treatment.
Australia’s first National Skin Cancer Scorecard has revealed striking gaps in prevention, early detection and care, despite skin cancer remaining the nation’s most common and most costly cancer.
Launched in Canberra today by the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Advocacy Network (MSCAN) and the Australasian College of Dermatologists (ACD), the scorecard calls for urgent, coordinated action across government, clinical sectors and communities to address a $2.47 billion annual burden and more than 2000 deaths each year.
It also warns that significant gaps in prevention, early detection and equitable care are leaving younger Australians, regional communities and patients with non-melanoma skin cancers dangerously exposed.
Survey data released as part of the scorecard show that one in four Australians have never checked their own skin, while almost six in 10 delay seeking medical advice after noticing a suspicious spot.
Confidence in performing self-checks is low, with only one in 10 Australians feeling “very confident” examining their own skin.
Dermatologists and GPs remain the cornerstone of early detection, but the findings suggest many cancers are still being identified late, increasing the likelihood of more invasive treatment and worse outcomes.
The scorecard also highlighted the longstanding neglect of keratinocyte cancers, which remain largely misunderstood by the public despite being the most frequently occurring cancers in Australia.
These cancers claim more than 700 Australian lives each year – more than the national road toll – yet nearly one in three Australians believes melanoma is the only fatal form of skin cancer.
Eight in 10 Australians do not know what keratinocyte cancers are, according to the survey.
Misconceptions about severity are widespread, with more than half of survey respondents reporting minimal concern about non-melanoma skin cancers. This disconnect persists even though keratinocyte cancers consume $1.87 billion in treatment costs annually, making them the most expensive cancers to treat and a major driver of demand on dermatology, general practice and surgical services.
ACD president Dr Adrian Lim said the National Skin Cancer Scorecard provided a “clear framework to focus effort where it will most improve access, early detection and specialist care, so every Australian community benefits”.
“As dermatologists, we see firsthand the impact these gaps have on patients and their families, and we are committed to ensuring that all Australians have access to life-saving skin cancer prevention, early detection, treatment and care,” he said.
Dr Lim told Dermatology Republic he was concerned about the lack of progress in raising awareness about non-melanoma skin cancers.
Related
“That surprised me, the fact that they did a survey and they found that people tend to trivialise the non-melanoma skin cancers, [the BCCs and SCCs],” he said.
“We know that two out of three Australians will develop, most likely, a non-melanoma, skin cancer, and that’s a significant mortality every year – like a third of the death rate of all skin cancers.”
The other “alarming statistic” for Dr Lim was the tendency for about 60% of people to delay their diagnosis by ignoring spots.
“They trivialise it and then they delay seeing their doctor, or they find something new and they don’t get it checked. People are not expected to diagnose anything, just pick up something that’s changing.”
It wasn’t all bad news though, Dr Lim said. Sun protection awareness was high in preschool and primary school children, although it tended to drop off during secondary school, probably when parents have less influence.
MSCAN founder and CEO Tamara Dawson said the scorecard represented an unprecedented attempt to measure progress across the entire continuum of care, from prevention and early detection through to treatment, survivorship and psychosocial support.
“We are immensely proud to lead this work, and are calling on governments, clinicians, researchers, industry and communities to work together and address the gaps the scorecard has highlighted to reduce the burden of skin cancer and save lives,” she said.
“MSCAN and ACD have developed the scorecard to keep melanoma and skin cancer firmly on the national agenda, and prompt conversations at the national, state, community and household levels.”
The scorecard’s 16 items were assessed against measurable indicators and rated from “no progress” to “significant progress”.
Six items received a rating of minimal progress, including sun protection measures in secondary schools, shade provision in high-risk community settings, sun safety for outdoor sports, equitable access to multidisciplinary care, access to psychosocial support, and national frameworks for virtual care and digital health technologies.
Dawson said these gaps reflect decades of fragmented effort and warned that continued inaction will further entrench health inequities.
Two priority groups emerged strongly from the analysis. Australians under 30 continue to experience disproportionately high melanoma rates, with melanoma remaining the most commonly diagnosed cancer in young adults.
Meanwhile, regional and rural Australians face higher incidence and mortality rates across all skin cancer types due to reduced access to dermatologists, longer wait times, and resource constraints in primary and acute care settings.
MSCAN and the ACD say addressing these inequities requires coordinated investment and collaboration across the health sector, with clearer referral pathways and expanded models of care that can reliably reach communities outside metropolitan centres.
Dr Lim said the scorecard’s findings reflected the daily reality for dermatologists, who routinely see preventable cancers presenting at more advanced stages.
He said it provided a crucial roadmap for improving prevention, early detection and access to specialist care, and emphasised the need for better national data to capture quality-of-life impacts and to quantify the true burden of keratinocyte cancers.
Current data collection systems do not capture non-melanoma skin cancers comprehensively, masking their full impact on patients and the healthcare system.
Dr Lim told DR addressing the chronic shortage of dermatologists across the country – but particularly in rural and remote parts of Australia – was integral to addressing the spiralling rates of skin cancer.
He said the workforce needed to increase by 10 to 20% with a plan to ensure that more dermatologists were recruited to work in areas outside cities and metropolitan areas.
“The country folk deserve dermatologists among them,” he said.
The next scorecardwill be published in 2030. MSCAN provides expert resources to support all Australians to get to know their own skin, including a step-by-step guide and video.
