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SPF May Not Be Enough To Protect Against Skin Cancer

Immune protection factor (IPF) in sunscreens and its relationto sun protection factor (SPF) is essential in determining skin cancerprevention ability, researchers found.

Basedon past discussion by experts convened by L'Oréal Recherche in Paris in2002, five groups of immunosuppresion researchers met to discuss thestatus of IPF in human skin for this study. The researchers testeddifferent sunscreens, methods and factors on volunteers from Australia,Austria, France, UK and USA to establish a standard method fordetermining IPF.

According to the researchers, the relationshipbetween a sunscreen's SPF and its ability to protect againstimmunosuppression is not presently known. A sunscreen with high SPF buta low protection against immunosuppression, or IPF, could in factincrease skin cancer risk. The paper describes progress in assessingsunscreen immune protection and demonstrates that much work is stillneeded to define a standard method to do this.

This study is published in the September 2005 issue of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

Source: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. August 2005.