Researchers advocate for promotion of skin self-examination for early melanoma detection
Source: Healio, July 2023
Key takeaways:
- 62.5% of 128 patients were diagnosed with a melanoma less than 1 mm thick after having conducted skin self-examinations (SSE).
- The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force should promote SSE.
Skin self-examination is a viable secondary prevention method for the early detection of primary melanoma and should be promoted to patients, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
While reducing melanoma mortality by removing early-stage melanomas has long been a goal for dermatologists, the authors of this article believe that physician-led screenings of asymptomatic adults have done little to achieve this goal.