Importance of Melanoma Prevention: Early Detection – Treatments of Cancer
On average, one person dies of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, every hour. Because this disease can affect anyone, everyone should take steps to reduce their risk and catch melanoma in its earliest stages, when it’s most treatable.
“This result is encouraging, because it shows us that patients are keeping an eye out for suspicious spots on their skin, and that they know to see a board-certified dermatologist to evaluate those spots,” says board-certified dermatologist Hensin Tsao, MD, PhD, FAAD, a professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School and one of the researchers who studied the SPOTme®data.
The risk of developing melanoma is elevated among certain groups, including Caucasians, men over 50, people with a personal or family history of skin cancer, and those with many moles, atypical moles or large moles. Among the SPOTme®screening participants studied, however, the factors associated with a changing mole included not only a high mole count and a history of melanoma, but also being female and having skin of color.