The last few decades have seen great advances in our approaches to control the epidemic of skin cancer and melanoma. All three strategies for cancer control - namely primary prevention, early detection, and treatment - have been the subject of intense research efforts recently, and these efforts are starting to bear fruit. Thus, we are in the midst of a revolution for treating advanced cancers of the skin. There have been astonishing advances in the technologies that might be deployed for early detection, and there is a strengthening perception that decades of primary prevention efforts are leading to declining melanoma rates among the young. Does that mean our work is done? Perhaps not. This talk will review the ‘state of play’ through the lens of epidemiology, and pose questions (and some suggestions) for the future.