THE Federal Government has committed $10.3 million to combat Australia's most common cancer, skin cancer.
With the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, two in three Australians will be diagnosed with some form of the common disease in their lifetime.
Melanoma, the most lethal form, affected over 18,000 Australians last year.
The funding aims to accelerate the development of a national skin cancer screening road map, focusing on early detection.
The initiative will be led by Professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer from the Melanoma Institute Australia.
The program will work with other cancer experts to research risk-based, cost-effective screening approaches and improve data collection for the Australian Cancer Database in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
This investment is in addition to the government's $15 million national skin cancer prevention campaign, which encourages Australians to follow the five S': slip, slop, slap, seek, and slide.
The Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, stressed, "skin cancer is our national cancer, but it's also one of the most preventable".
He emphasised the importance of prevention and early detection.
Prof Long praised the investment, calling it "a major first step forward in establishing this key program".
Prof Scolyer added, "prevention is better than a cure, and the more investment in this area the better, from our perspective". JG
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