Many skin cancer patients skip routine self-exams

Many people who’ve had melanoma skin cancer don’t regularly check their skin for new or recurring signs of cancer, a new study reveals. Routine skin self-exams are critical to ensure the early detection of new or recurring skin cancer, but the study found that fewer than 15 percent of melanoma patients consistently perform thorough skin […]

Many people who’ve had melanoma skin cancer don’t regularly check their skin for new or recurring signs of cancer, a new study reveals.
Routine skin self-exams are critical to ensure the early detection of new or recurring skin cancer, but the study found that fewer than 15 percent of melanoma patients consistently perform thorough skin self-exams.
“The most common reasons given for not having conducted such an exam over the prior two-month period were that patients didn’t think of it, didn’t know what to look for, or didn’t know that they should,” the study’s lead author, Elliot Coups, a behavioral scientist at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, said in an institute news release.
The study included 176 people who’d had malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. More than half of the study volunteers were women, and 99 percent were white, the researchers said. The average age was 62.
Study participants completed a survey about their skin self-examination habits. The survey also asked about their willingness to perform thorough exams.
Researchers found that 72 percent of the participants had done a skin self-exam within the past two months.