Study examines factors associated with seeking skin cancer screening
2010-10-19
(Press-News.org) A survey of patients undergoing skin cancer screening shows that women were more likely to seek screening because of a skin lesion, a family history of skin cancer, or concern about sun exposure, whereas men age 50 and older, a group at highest risk for melanoma, may only seek screenings after a previous skin cancer diagnosis, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
In 2008, more than 62,000 Americans were diagnosed with the skin cancer melanoma and almost 8,500 died from the disease, according to background information in the article. Other skin cancers, including basal and squamous cell carcinomas, are more common but less often fatal. "Screening for melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer involves a full-body examination of the skin by a trained professional," the authors write. "However, screening asymptomatic individuals without regard for risk factors can be low-yield. For example, only 1.5 per 1,000 people screened in the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) national screening programs were confirmed to have a melanoma."
Despite the low probability of detecting melanoma through such a widespread screening program, the public remains extremely interested in screenings from dermatologists, the authors note. Ryan Andrulonis, B.S., and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh surveyed 487 individuals seeking skin cancer screening between May and October 2009. Participants completed a 12-question survey with information about demographic factors, risk factors for melanoma and reasons for seeking skin cancer screening.
About 60 percent of the patients were female, and they had a median (midpoint) age of 53 years. The most common reasons for seeking skin cancer screening were a personal history of skin cancer (47.1 percent), followed by concern about sun exposure (30 percent) and a family history of non-melanoma skin cancer (29 percent).
Most patients (80.6 percent) had sought screening without having a particular skin lesion that concerned them, although women were more likely than men to have a skin lesion they believed could be skin cancer (24.6 percent vs. 11.9 percent). Other findings included: women were more likely than men to be concerned about previous sun exposure (34.3 percent vs. 23.8 percent); participants younger than 50 years were more likely than those older to seek screening because of a family history of melanoma (30 percent vs. 18.9 percent) or on the recommendation of a friend (21 percent vs. 8.7 percent); and men 50 years or older were more likely than other individuals to seek screening because they had previously been diagnosed with skin cancer (64.6 percent vs. 40.8 percent)
Most patients believed screening had been proven to prevent skin cancer (72.3 percent) or reduce the risk of death from skin cancer (89.9 percent). "When asked to compare skin cancer screening with colonoscopy, mammography and Pap smears in terms of importance for preventing cancer-related death, nearly all patients believed the skin cancer screening examination to be equally valuable to these prospectively studied and proven screening tests, although no randomized prospective screening trials have shown evidence for or against skin cancer screening in the general population," the authors write.
"There is a need for better educational campaigns with specific recommendation for who should be screened for skin cancer," they conclude. "Better communication with the public in the form of specific guidelines, with an emphasis on encouraging screening of older men, may allow us to reach those patients who would most benefit from screening and increase the yield of early melanoma diagnoses during screening."
###(Arch Dermatol. 2010;146[10]:1097-1102. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org.)
Editor's Note: This study was supported in part by the University of Pittsburgh Dean's Summer Research Program. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2010-10-19
Patients with basal cell nevus syndrome, which predisposes them to develop non-melanoma skin cancers, appear to be at increased risk for vitamin D deficiency if they take steps to protect themselves from sunlight, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
"Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with an increased risk of autoimmune disease, fractures, cancer, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality," the authors write as background information in the article. "There is increasing concern that sun ...
2010-10-19
A simple, eight-item pre-operative questionnaire could help identify patients at risk for complications following surgery, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Individuals prone to the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome as determined by the questionnaire appear to have an increased risk of heart, lung and other complications following elective surgery.
Obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder in which individuals periodically stop breathing during sleep, occurs in approximately 5 percent ...
2010-10-19
High fat diets cause a dramatic immune system overreaction to sepsis, a condition of systemic bacterial infection. An experimental study in mice, published in the open access journal BMC Physiology, has shown that a diet high in saturated fat, sugars and cholesterol greatly exaggerates the inflammatory response to sepsis.
Chantal Rivera, PhD Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport, said that "Mortality due to sepsis in morbidly obese subjects is estimated to be 7 times more prevalent compared ...
2010-10-19
Despite widespread use of pneumococcal vaccination, some children still develop deafness following pneumococcal meningitis, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Based on a small case series, early evaluation and simultaneous cochlear implantation in both ears may be a successful treatment strategy.
Since the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) became widely used in the United States in 2001, cases of meningitis and other related diseases have dramatically declined, according ...
2010-10-19
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — If women had no prolactin receptors on cells in their mammary glands, they would not produce milk when they were nursing. Prolactin receptors are also found in other organs including the lung and the colon. The only problem is that these receptors are sort of like cellular wiring, and when the wrong conditions bring them together, the resulting short circuit can produce cancer.
In new research published online Oct. 18, 2010, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, a team led by researcheres at Brown University and Rhode ...
2010-10-19
San Antonio, Texas, October 18, 2010 – A systematic review of the medical literature supports the hypothesis that statins, cholesterol‐lowering drugs used to prevent cardiac problems, are associated with reduced risk of colon and rectal cancers. A comprehensive analysis by investigators at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, included 22 scientific studies with more than 2.5 million combined participants.
"Statin use was associated with a statistically significant reduction in colorectal cancer," explained Jewel Samadder, M.D., MSc. The relative risk was 0.88 ...
2010-10-19
In five different studies presented at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 75th Annual Scientific meeting in San Antonio, researchers explored the impact of various factors on increasing rates of Clostridium difficile infection (C. difficile), such as the use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and the substantial increase in antibiotic use due to new National Hospital Quality Measures; strategies to combat high rates of C. difficile infections; and cutting‐edge treatments for this potentially deadly—and quite common—infection.
Five studies were featured ...
2010-10-19
Watching violent films, TV programmes or video games desensitises teenagers, blunts their emotional responses to aggression and potentially promotes aggressive attitudes and behaviour, according to new research published online today in the Oxford Journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (Tuesday 19 October).
Although previous research has suggested that people can become more aggressive and desensitised to real-life violence after repeatedly viewing violent media programmes, little is known about how the extent of watching such programmes and the severity ...
2010-10-19
San Antonio, Texas (October 18, 2010) – Fructose intolerance, or fructose malabsorption, is common in children with recurrent or functional abdominal pain, but the condition can be effectively managed with a low‐fructose diet, according to the results of a new study unveiled today at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 75th Annual Scientific meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
The study, "Fructose Intolerance/Malabsorption and Recurrent Abdominal Pain in Children," investigated a total of 245 patients with unexplained chronic abdominal pain alone or associated ...
2010-10-19
Research on obesity examining the role of hormones and the autonomic functions of the digestive system was presented at the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American CoIlege of Gastroenterology.
Gastric function, as well the activities of the autonomic nervous system that regulates digestion, are impaired in obese individuals in both fasting and fed states, according to a study from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, "Altered Postprandial Gastric and Autonomic Functions in Obese Subjects." Measures of gastric myoelectrical activity (GMA) by electrogastrography ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Study examines factors associated with seeking skin cancer screening