I n an effort to heighten awareness of the deadliest form of skin cancer, the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) has designated May as Melanoma Month. The month will kick off on May 3, Melanoma Monday, which is designed to raise awareness about melanoma and encourage lifelong habits of regular skin self-examinations.

Joshua Fox, M.D., a spokesperson for the AAD and Founding Director of Advanced Dermatology and The Center for Laser and Cosmetic Surgery in New York, says that he’s been recommending skin self examination to his patients for years.

Skin self examinations can greatly improve the changes of survival from melanoma. A recent study conducted at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, which was published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, found that skin self examination can reduce mortality from melanoma by 63%.

But not surprisingly, most patients aren’t performing these self-examinations, a finding the study also confirmed.

Researchers at Sloan-Kettering designed a 100-patient survey to look for ways to increase compliance with skin self-examinations. They found that baseline, whole-body photos and healthcare professional intervention increased self-examination rates by 50%. Using a baseline photo book alone increased the rate by 17%.

A Helpful Teaching Tool
You’re probably all too aware that skin cancer is on the rise, affecting one in five Americans, and about 1 million new cases will be diagnosed this year.
Of these 1 million cases, about 95,880 are melanoma, which will claim the lives of 7,910 people in 2004.

Educate your patients about melanoma by recommending they take the following steps:
1. Take baseline photographs of suspicious areas before beginning a regular skin self-examination routine.
2. Critically view each mole using the ABCD approach.

Download this PDF, which is designed for patient education, to help your patients detect the hallmark signs of melanoma early.