New tool can save your skin
Online melanoma questionnaire indicates whether person’s risk is higher than average
Adults can check their risk of developing potentially fatal melanoma skin cancer with a simple new questionnaire online.
The new self-assessment tool, run by an Australian research group, was due to go live overnight. It is for people aged 40 or over and based on seven questions that will predict their risk of developing melanoma within 3.5 years in five categories from “very much below average” to “very much above average”.
New Zealand has one of the highest melanoma rates in the world. Each year 2400 new cases are diagnosed and 350 people die from it.
It can usually be treated effectively by removal of the tumour if detected early, before cancer cells have started to spread. But the survival rate is much lower in so-called invasive or “malignant” melanoma.
The aim of the new tool is to prompt people at increased risk of melanoma to get suspicious-looking moles checked out sooner. And its developers urge everyone to be “sun smart” about exposure to the sun.
People whose melanoma prediction comes back as above average or higher are advised to talk to a doctor about whether they need a regular skin check. “This online risk predictor will help identify those people with the highest likelihood of developing melanoma so that they and their doctors can decide how best to manage their risk,” said one of the developers, Professor David Whiteman, of the Berghofer Queensland Medical Research Institute. “Regular screening of those at highest risk may help to detect melanomas early, and hopefully before they’ve spread to the lower layers of the skin and other parts of the body. “Importantly, in this study we found that people’s actual risk of melanoma was quite different to their own assessment. This highlights the importance of getting personalised advice on your melanoma risk ... ”
The tool is based on a study that followed more than 40,000 Queenslanders aged 40 to 69 for an average of 3.5 years to see how many developed melanoma and what their risk factors were. Whiteman said it was very accurate for people at lower risk of melanoma. It tended to inflate readings for some people at high risk.
“That means some people in the high risk category end up not getting melanoma ... ”
Skin specialist Associate Professor Amanda Oakley expressed admiration for Whiteman’s work, but said melanoma prediction tools were specific to their population and New Zealand had its own, produced by a University of Otago researcher and used by GPs.
Cancer Society Auckland chief executive John Loof said, “Any tool that helps raise awareness around skin cancer is helpful. There are a number of self-diagnosis applications and websites.
“This new one, some of the inputs are subjective, for example tanning ability.
“There’s potential for people to get that wrong. If that’s the case, there’s a danger that people could get a false sense of security — overestimate the benefits of this [tool] and underestimate some of the risks.”
People should protect themselves from the sun with sunscreen, clothes, hat, shade and sunglasses. They should check their skin and have suspicious lesions checked by a doctor.
Vanessa McSaveney was diagnosed with melanoma after a spur-of-the-moment decision to get checked. She had two spots on her back and one on the side of her neck.
McSaveney told Herald Focus that she couldn’t have relied on a selfcheck because she couldn’t even see the melanoma on her neck.
Asked about her history of sun exposure, McSaveney said she probably had sunburn as a child. She used zinc cream on her nose and wore a hat but didn’t use sunscreen.