Fighting with the FDA, or Why young people are rejecting sunscreens

American Thinker ^ | 8/3/26 | Susan Quinn

[pingman]

At a time when melanoma is the deadliest skin cancer on record, the Federal Drug Administration was still slow-walking its decision-making over a new drug, Replimune (RP1). The staff members used inappropriate criteria to make their decision about rejecting the drug, and at a time when one of the most lethal cancers is not responding to other treatments, they were showing poor judgment:

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, with as many as 3 million people being diagnosed with skin cancer every year, according to the American Cancer Society. The most dangerous form of skin cancer is melanoma, which accounts for the large majority of skin cancer deaths.

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, melanoma rates have steadily increased in the U.S. since 1999. And while the risk of melanoma increases as we age, it is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer between the ages of 25 and 39.

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: fda; melanoma; sunscreen

[pingman]

Replimune's RP1 is an injectable treatment for advanced melanoma tumors that has been rejected twice by the FDA, on spurious grounds, many observers in the oncology field say. However, it has been given a 3rd review (a rarity) and the decision is expected imminently. RFK Jr. has been revamping the approval process for medications, and many of the obstructionist bureaucrats have been cashiered. That's the best kind of Swamp Draining.

[Dr. Sivana]

At a time when melanoma is the deadliest skin cancer on record

I am pretty sure that pancreatic cancer has a much higher fatality rate.

[pingman]

“skin” cancer

[Dr. Sivana]

Thanks for the clarification. I skimmed over it like a Freeper.

[pingman]

I’m guilty of that.

[catnipman]

The ⁠U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved bemotrizinol, marking the first new active sunscreen ingredient added in over 20 years. Products featuring this ingredient begin hitting shelves in August 2026.

unlike most other existing sunscreen active ingredients, bemotrizinol is NOT absorbed into the skin ...

you youngsters here: USE sunscreen at the beach and when outdoors for long periods and at higher altitudes like the rocky mountain states ...

my parents generation thought coppertone was the bees knees, but all it did was stink ... and now myself and most i know my age make regular visits to dermatologists to have emerging skin cancers frozen or cut out ...

[cymbeline]

“I skimmed over it like a Freeper.”

You have to skim articles because they are padded with useless verbiage, especially at the beginning.

I think it’s because a visit to a site is not counted unless the visitor stays there for some number of seconds.

[pingman]

Some sunscreens melt plastic on contact. That’s always a good sign for something you’re putting on your skin, NOT!

[vivenne]

Actually, melanoma is one of the deadliest cancers and the reason being is that if it is not caught early, it spreads quickly from it’s original spot on skin directly to the blood stream thereby metasticiing to many organs.

[lastchance]

I agree but I believe the author was referring only to various skin cancers.

[lastchance]

Go and pick up your honor badge. I have several.

[Vaduz]

Yes in old timey days people had long sleeve shirts and hats to prevent such things.

So do I after having melanoma 3 times for riding motor cycles in T-shirts for years melanoma is painful stitches ensued.

[zeestephen]

There are probably 10 excisional skin biopsies performed for every actual case of melanoma.

Suspicious skin lesions are the bread and butter for the dermatology occupation, especially for melanoma, since it is potentially fatal.

Sixty years ago, Florida dermatologists would blast every non-invasive skin lesion with liquid nitrogen.

They probably saved thousands of lives.

Today, most dermatologists just visually inspect your skin, do nothing, and tell you to come back, for another visual inspection, in six months.

If you ask for cryo-ablation, it will cost you a couple hundred dollars.

When they see something completely obvious - here comes a thousand dollar biopsy!

[pingman]

My dermatologist must be slipping. They squirt the liquid nitrogen at no extra charge. Heck, it can take 6 months to get an appointment with them!

[LilFarmer]

I don’t wear sunscreen, ever. I wear long sleeves and hats or zinc oxide on my nose and shoulders if I’m gonna be in the water a lot.

My husband doesn’t either and he gets those pre-cancerous spots but they are always under his hat on his forehead where it gets almost no sun.

I would be interested to know if the incidence of skin cancer has gone up or down since the introduction of sunscreen.

[TexasGator]

“I am pretty sure that pancreatic cancer has a much higher fatality rate.”

I am pretty sure that the pancreas is below the skin.

[TexasGator]

“Sixty years ago, Florida dermatologists would blast every non-invasive skin lesion with liquid nitrogen.”

My Florida dermatologist still does.

[TexasGator]

“If you ask for cryo-ablation, it will cost you a couple hundred dollars.”

If you don’t have insurance and if it is more than one spot.

[AppyPappy]

They love to cut stuff off me. The last one I balked on. Even I knew it wasn’t cancerous. But they are some attractive gals from WV.

[bert]

My Tennessee dermatoligist does also, and.....

Believe it or don’t but the Freeper MHGinTN actually sold the stuff for the liquid nitrogen medical lesion freezing to the doctors