Protect your skin: get a free skin cancer screening

As athletes, many of us spend hours training in the sun, and don't always slather on sunscreen before every workout. But it's particularly important now, as we enter the sunny, UV-filled months of spring and summer. Sunburn- and cancer-causing UVB rays are strongest April through October in the U.S.

Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is also one of the easiest to prevent and treat if caught early. Those at higher risk to develop the disease include fair-skinned, light hair- and eye-color people like me; those with family members who have had skin cancer; people who've used tanning beds; and those with more than 100 moles or with moles that match one of the descriptions here.

So start your summer season off right: Get a free skin cancer screening courtesy of the American Academy of Dermatologists. Click here for a list of doctors offering free screenings this spring, timed to coincide with Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention month every May.

—Kristin Harrison

Comments

[Brian]

The most important thing is to find potential melanoma lesions early while removal can be a cure. People at high risk (especially if you have already had a melanoma) need to follow their skin closely. The traditional ABCD criteria can help guide risk assessment. A, for asymmetric lesions; B for moles with irregular Borders; C, for colors in the lesion; and D, for diameter greater than the tip of an eraser.

More recently physicians have recognized the importance of moles that are new or getting larger in predicting high risk lesions. They have now added E for enlargement to the criteria and many recommend following the ABCDE’s. Having reliable information on whether a mole is changing increases the specificity of the skin exam and could therefore reduce the over-diagnosis of suspicious lesions.

Although dermatologists almost always ask if you have any new or changing moles most people cannot accurately answer that question (particularly those with numerous moles and the greatest risk). One way to approach this problem for people at high risk is to use Total Body Photography to document the moles on your body. However, this is an expensive procedure (often costing $400-$600) that most insurance providers will not cover.

There is now an inexpensive software program that allows people to use their own digital cameras at home to take their own body images at different time intervals (maximizing privacy). The images can be scaled and aligned and compared using a personal computer to allow for the efficient recognition of new or growing moles. This software was developed from funding provided by the National Cancer Institute and can be obtained by going to the website http://www.dermalert.com .