Roadmap for a National Targeted Skin Cancer Screening Program

When detected in its earliest stages, long term survival rates for melanoma are greater than 95%. While many melanomas and other skin cancers are detected early, the current approach to screening and early detection is mostly ad hoc and inequitable, relying on individuals or their doctors to identify their personal risk and initiate skin checks.

Following significant advocacy from Melanoma Institute Australia and the wider melanoma community, in October 2024, the Federal Government announced a budget allocation of just over $10 million for the development of a Roadmap for a National Targeted Skin Cancer Screening Program.

In January 2025, a $7.5 million grant was awarded to Melanoma Institute Australia to lead the development of the Roadmap. A further $2 million dollars was awarded to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare who will work in collaboration with the Melanoma Institute Australia and the Roadmap teams to develop the data collection and monitoring requirements for a skin cancer screening program.

The Roadmap will set out an evidence-based program for screening that will target those in the population at highest risk of developing skin cancer and will be equitable in its reach, trustworthy for patients and clinicians and cost effective for the community and the healthcare system.

Over the next 3.5 years Melanoma Institute Australia will work in collaboration with Cancer Australia, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, clinicians, clinical and other health colleges and associations, researchers, consumers, primary health care networks and the states and territories to gather the evidence and develop consensus recommendations for how the screening program will work.

Recommendations will identify the most appropriate risk assessment tools to identify who will be invited for screening, what the screening intervention will be, and how screening will be delivered. Recommendations will also be made for how those who are identified as having a potentially concerning lesion will be clinically assessed and followed up. Assessments will be made in relation to how the benefits of the screening program can be maximised, and the potential harms minimised. The required infrastructure, data management, funding mechanisms and health economic modelling will also be analysed to ensure a feasible, robust, and cost-effective Program can be rolled out.

Professor Anne Cust, co-lead of the Prevention, Risk & Clinical Detection of Melanoma stream at Melanoma Institute Australia, will lead the program on behalf of the Institute. Governance Committees and Workstreams have been established (see more information in summary below), drawing upon a very diverse range of experts who will be tasked with evaluating and collating the evidence and making recommendations on the design of the Roadmap. Stakeholders from all possible touchpoints along a potential screening pathway will also be meaningfully and frequently consulted by the Roadmap teams to seek their input, insights and feedback to ensure a feasible and sustainable screening program can be designed.

A final Roadmap report will be delivered to the Australian Government in September 2028.

National Roadmap for Skin Cancer Screening – an Australian Government initiative.