Important things about skin cancer screening

Most of the skin cancer cases are not fatal, according to a report this December; however the National Cancer Institute roughly estimates that in 2015 alone, more than 74,000 Americans will be detected with melanoma, while more than 9,000 patients will soon die from the said disease. The Preventive task force service has just revealed a draft recommendation, stating that on a visual skin cancer screening done in asymptomatic adults; they have noted that it had emphasized the screening results for the melanoma in the statement. Based on a new systematic evaluation, the task force has discovered that there is a present proof that it is insufficient to address the balance of the advantages and harms of the whole body visual skin tests to detect melanoma or the non-melanoma skin cancer.

The task force is serious in giving assistance to the Americans to prevent skin cancer from harming their healthy lives according to the task force.  They also added that until they have more research to better comprehend the balance of the advantages and the harms of the clinical visual skin tests, they may persuade the patients to talk and discuss over with their doctors about the concerns that they have about their skin. The task force has discovered as well that in the present research about the effectiveness of the whole body visual skin cancer test done by the doctors, it was not enough to associate the screening to the reduction of the morbidity rate. Moreover, the task force has discovered the an enough amount of proof that visual skin cancer screening just by the doctor may lead to possible harmful effects and that includes the misdiagnosis and overdiagnosis, with the resulting opposing cosmetic outcomes like scarring and others.

The updates since 2009

From the recommendation statements released in 2009 from the task force that also summed up the proof that was not sufficient enough to know the balance between the advantages and the disadvantages of using a whole body skin test by the doctors in the hospitals or by the patient with the self-check system to know if there is a possibility of skin cancer. There is no statement about the patients taking skin self-check that was indicated in the new recommendation released, probably for the reason that the task force said, the aim of the task force is to give guidance to the doctors about preventive services they can offer to the primary care program.

The best advice that they can give to family doctors in light of the patients and young teens is to secure their skin and continue lessening the exposure to the sun’s UV rays. This can help by lessening the amount of time spent under the sun, especially during peak hours of the day like noon time to until 3 in the afternoon.