THINK MELANOMA

Every physician's office should be a melanoma detection station. Ident ification and surgical excision of early melanoma is today's best answ er to reducing the death rate from this treacherous disease. Public aw areness of melanoma is gaining momentum. Melanoma education for physic ians is vital if the battle against melanoma is to be successful. This presentation is a challenge to all physicians and students of medicin e to identify patients at risk for melanoma and to follow up with a sk in scan to search for suspicious spots on all patients with risk facto rs for melanoma as a part of their physical examination. We need to te ach individuals at risk to do self-examination, to report immediately any recent growth changes in an existing mole or any recently acquired pigmented lesion, and to practice the rules of safe sun exposure. Bec ause securing a suitable specimen of tissue for biopsy and proper inte rpretation of sections are paramount in patient management and underst anding prognosis, we present guidelines for performing a proper biopsy .