Skin cancer continues to surge in the US...

You may feel inundated with sunscreen reminders, but apparently, they haven't been enough to help stop skin cancer from occurring at an increasing rate.

Harvard researcher Robert S. Stern, MD, developed a model to determine the prevalance of non-melanoma skin cancer in 2007. His results, published this month, are dismaying: "The prevalence of a history of skin cancer is far higher than that of any other cancer and exceeds that of all other cancers diagnosed since 1975."

Specifically, he estimates that 13 million white Americans have had non-melanoma skin cancer (not counting the last two years), with a fifth of all 70-year-olds receiving the diagnosis at least once. Most of those septuagenarians have had multiple occurrences.

Experts say there is a skin cancer epidemic, and current educational programs have not done enough for the prevention and treatment of the diseases.