He Melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer with the worst prognosis. and it is estimated that if the trend continues, by 2040 it will be the second most common cancer and the first for men. Therefore, self-examination at least once a month is presented as the best form of early detection.
This was announced this Wednesday by the Healthy Skin Foundation of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (AEDV), which presented the “Euromelanoma 2023” campaign, which this year focuses on adolescents and young adultswith the intention of facing summer Improve your tanning habits.
National campaign coordinator Ángeles Flórez informed at the press conference that this year from 1 to 30 AEDV dermatologists will once again perform personal examinations altruists to patients to check the health of their skin through an online appointment.
Having fair skin and eyes, blonde or red hair, having many birthmarks, having a family member diagnosed with skin cancer, using booths with UVA rays, or being exposed to radiation or sunburn for many hours. risk factors if you have skin cancer. However, this cancer can affect all skin types and although its occurrence is more common in advanced age, some types of melanoma are diagnosed in very young patients.
And that’s it habits from childhood and adolescence take their toll throughout lifeand ultraviolet radiation accumulate, so it is important to avoid excessive sun exposure or sunburn.
The person in charge of the campaign coordinators, Elena Godoy, considered this essential change the models that the younger population uses as a reference for healthy skin and stressed that new generations should know that tanning is a skin protection mechanism against sunburn, “and not a healthy habit.”
The AEDV recommends self-examination from an early age and insists that spending just a few minutes a month examining the skin will prevent most cases. In fact, you are invited to do some self-examination in front of the mirror without forgetting areas such as legs or hands, genital area or scalp where lesions may also appear. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness about the appearance of new moles, atypical growth of some or possible changes in color, shape, itching or pain.
Dermatologists emphasize that you need to watch for that mole that is different from the rest, as they say “ugly duckling” and they require you to go to a specialist immediately to find out if it is problematic or not.
78,000 new cases each year
The incidence of melanoma has increased by 40% in the past four years. and although it is a preventable cancer, 1.7% of the European population is affected by this pathology.
In Spain, 78,000 new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed every year, with an incidence of 120 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants in the case of basal cell carcinomas and 40 cases per hundred thousand in squamous cell carcinomas of the skin.
In this context, Fundación Piel Sana of AEDV insists that sun exposure be done gradually to facilitate skin adaptation and prevent eDirect exposure in the central hours of the day. In addition, the key to prevention is the application of sunscreen to the places we are going to expose and repeat its application.
Eduardo Nagore, campaign coordinator in Europe, explains it mortality of this type was not reducedremains stable because 20% of melanomas are very fast growing and the only way to detect them is through self-examination.
The “Euromelanoma” campaign was created in 1999 and, in agreement with the Global Coalition for the Defense of Melanoma Patients, 40 countries have joined it. Spain has participated since 2000 and since 2007 through the Foundation for Healthy Skin.
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