Skin cancer the focus of new pharma campaign
Source: Benefits and Pensions Monitor, July 2024
While the rates of many cancer types are projected to continue to decrease, melanoma remains a notable outlier. In fact, Merck Canada says the number of Canadians receiving a diagnosis of melanoma each year continues to rise, more than tripling in the past 30 years.
That’s why Merck Canada launched their “Practice Skintimacy” campaign, which aims to help Canadians understand how to better protect themselves and their loved ones from melanoma and empower meaningful action in support of healthy skin habits. Dr. Maxwell Sauder, onco-dermatologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and assistant professor at the University of Toronto highlighted a few reasons as to why Merck launched the initiative, which is going into its second year.
“The single most important factor is that melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. It was estimated that this year, around 10,000 Canadians are diagnosed with melanoma, and of that, around 1,200 Canadians will die from the disease,” he said. Thankfully, melanoma is relatively rare, but it can also have some of the most serious implications for it, Sauder noted. Unlike other cancers, where several methods and technological tools are needed to identify and detect cancer, skin cancer can be seen by the human eye.