Posts Tagged ‘Detection’
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
In case you missed reading about it on our Facebook page –but we HOPE you’re also joining us there? — we posted my interview on Tech Talk with Craig Peterson. Craig’s show has been ranked the #1 radio show in the Boston Market with some 4 million podcast downloads. He interviews top industry insiders and I was pleased to be able to speak to the technological advances MoleSafe has offered in our ongoing effort to improve early detection of Melanoma and other skin cancers.
You may have also read on our wall, or on Twitter, that we’re going to be accepting appointments at our MOBILE clinic, arriving in San Francisco the week of October 10th. Please share this with all your friends and loved ones in the Bay Area as we bring the most advanced detection services to the West coast. Call 1-877-MOLESAFE (1-877-665-3723) to schedule an appointment there…or at any of our permanent clinics in six locations around the country.
If you can’t make it to one of our clinics, do continue to practice self-exams and book your annual examinations with your dermatologist.
MelApp from Health Discovery on iTunes
If you’ll be attending the AAD next weekend (American Academy of Dermatology) we hope to meet you. Please look for me, Dr. Richard Bezozo as well as Dennis Favazza – MoleSafe’s Director of Business Development, and Maddie Pallamary, RN. We’ll be at the conference, taking place Aug 4-6 at the Hilton Hotel in NYC — Booth # 330. Please come by and let’s talk in person about MoleSafe and our leading edge diagnostic tools.
Finally, in other news, there’s another way to remember your ABCDEs! Similar to the app we reported on a couple of months ago you can use your iPhone now in the meantime with MelApp to share images of your moles with your doctor, along with a helpful reminder of exactly what to look for on your skin — and the skin of a loved one.
Tags: AAD, ABCDEs, Best Practices, Craig Peterson, Detection, How-To, Melanoma, MoleSafe, screenings, Skin Cancer, Tech Talk
Posted in News/Events, Self Exam, Updates | No Comments »
Sunday, May 8th, 2011
May is Melanoma and Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and we have a few ways to make the vigilance easier! First, we invite you to “like” our new MoleSafe Facebook page! We’ll try to keep you updated with interesting updates from all our locations and patient comments. Straightaway you might want to check out the patient video of the Walters sisters who get regular check-ups at our CentraState MoleSafe location after they were each diagnosed around age 30. They describe our approach and their version of sun protection vigilance, too.
Next, what better time than Mother’s Day to thank moms like the Walters sisters who now also ensure they practice safe sun exposure for their kids as well! As a reminder, that includes having them play in the shade, using protective clothing, and applying sunscreen regularly.
Speaking of sun exposure, SpaFinders is in on the awareness path with a sun-exposure alert bracelet! Much better idea than the “suntan turnover time alerts” we still hear on the radio some times…
Another way to make a “fashion statement” about melanoma is through the numerous items touting Melanoma Awareness which you can find at Zazzle.com, for example.
We applaud the AAD‘s “31 Days and 31 Ways” to Prevent and Detect Melanoma. Check out each of the days of May for good tips and suggestions, as well as their list of locations for free skin cancer check-ups. Of course, we believe that May is the best time — before summer kicks off — to get the most thorough exam possible using the latest high tech methods of screening for skin cancers and melanoma, and that is the methodology used by MoleSafe in the U.S. and MoleMap worldwide.
Here’s to a good, healthy month of May!
Tags: AAD, awareness, Best Practices, CentraState, Detection, Melanoma, Mole Map, MoleSafe, screenings, Skin Cancer, SpaFinder, sunscreen, tanning
Posted in Personal Stories, Self Exam, Smart Prevention Practices | No Comments »
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Today is Melanoma Monday, and as described in an upbeat but informative blog, “EGMN: Notes From the Road” – by the Maryland-based staff of the Elsevier Global Medical Network – Melanoma Monday could “use some love.” Melanoma Monday is a good idea — intended to kick off the stepped up education and outreach during May as Melanoma/ Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month. However, it IS sort of challenging to love ANY Monday, associated with heading back to work, let alone one named Melanoma Monday.
EGMN sums it up with insight and humor:
…who would want to visit a website called Melanoma Monday unless you already have an interest in the disease. Which is too bad, because there is some cool stuff there that could help with melanoma prevention and early detection.
Free skin cancer screenings are being offered in May, and site visitors can find one near them. What if clinic waiting rooms let patients take the site’s Suntelligence Survey on a computer and offered sunscreen samples as prizes? And hey, let’s get the kids involved with the cool Body Mole Map that you can download from the .org site. Make it a game! Make it an annual birthday ritual now, so that by the time they’re young adults they’ll want to keep doing it for nostalgia’s sake, if nothing else.
So, EGMN, we agree, and we’re here to support Melanoma Monday and show it some love. Because what’s in a name, when lives could be saved? Coming up from Melanoma Updates (yes, perhaps we could have a more scintillating name, too!), we’ll share some resources and recommendations for loving the whole MONTH of Melanoma awareness.
Tags: AAD, Detection, Melanoma, Melanoma Monday, Melanoma Skin Cancer Month, screenings, Skin Cancer
Posted in News/Events, Smart Prevention Practices | No Comments »
Sunday, April 24th, 2011
At MoleSafe, we are quite used to seeing the super-enlargements and “high def” reality of various lesions, moles, skin blemishes and irregularities. After all, with our advanced detection technology we see details even macro-photography doesn’t reveal. (See an example in my post, Spotting Melanoma.) And, we have frequently promoted the ABCDEs of skin cancer self-exams and shared the rules of thumb about suspicious marks. However, there has rarely been a consumer news piece as clear and as, well, blatant, as CBSNews.com’s feature posted this week, of “38 photos that could save your life.” Certainly, our friends at the Skin Cancer Foundation, credited with these images, share examples on their site, but we felt the CBS spread was important for its ability to reach the general public.
This nodular lesion is a squamous cell carcinoma. These lesions are seldom fatal but can be disfiguring. Credit: The Skin Cancer Foundation
The images are startling, clear, and come with specific explanations of the whys and whats that distinguish the moles and lesions in the photos. They may be difficult for the average person to review, but I feel they are important as a way to increase awareness of what could be ignored or overlooked and with this kind of education what could, just as the title promises, save your life. Just as we felt about Dr. Oz and the “in your face” videos of skin cancers and prevention information that he shared, this photographic guide is worthy of a “Hat’s On” award for straightforward, helpful coverage of exactly what to look for in the variety of skin cancer presentations.
And yet again, here are those rules of thumb again for your skin self-exams and warning signs to heed:
- A skin growth that increases in size and appears pearly, translucent, tan, brown, black, or multicolored
- A mole, birthmark, beauty mark, or any brown spot that:
- changes color
- increases in size or thickness
- changes in texture
- is irregular in outline
- is bigger than 6mm or 1/4”, the size of a pencil eraser
- appears after age 21
- A spot or sore that continues to itch, hurt, crust, scab, erode, or bleed
- An open sore that does not heal within three weeks
Tags: awareness, Best Practices, CBS, Detection, Dr. Oz, How-To, Melanoma, MoleSafe, screenings, Skin Cancer, Skin Cancer Foundation, skin self-exam
Posted in Hats On Award, News/Events, Self Exam | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 21st, 2011
No, the end of our title line, “Another Season, Another Reason…” is NOT “for makin’ whoopie” as the song goes. It’s a reminder that Spring has sprung whether or not you feel the new season in the air in your neck of the woods yet. That means our hours of sunshine are increasing…and THAT is another reason to remember to make your annual appointment for a comprehensive skin cancer skin exam — we hope at MoleSafe. However, if you’re not in our neck of the woods with our six locations, there’s another resource that may be coming to YOU soon:
Thanks to our friends at the Skin Cancer Foundation, you can take advantage of their 4th annual skin cancer screening tour, which kicked off again just last week.
The 2011 Tour will make an estimated 80 stops in 24 states. After kicking off in Jacksonville, Florida on March 11, the Tour bus, a 38-foot customized RV with two exam rooms, will travel around the country stopping in some new cities this year. The Tour reaches New York City just in time for Skin Cancer Awareness Month in May. The 2011 Road to Healthy Skin Tour will conclude in New Orleans on September 17.
Tour Route: Skin Cancer Foundation Screening Bus
So, here, there and everywhere (a line from another great song!) is an opportunity to look out for yourself and your loved ones; no excuses! Plan your checkup today. You can even use their site to “tell a friend.” Please do; a life could depend on it.
Tags: awareness, Detection, MoleSafe, Prevention, screenings, Skin Cancer, Skin Cancer Foundation
Posted in News/Events, Self Exam | No Comments »
Friday, March 18th, 2011
Just a head’s up that I’ll be speaking in Freehold, NJ, at our CentraState location of MoleSafe on May 2, 2011 at 6:30P. More details to come, but please come by if you are in the area. Of course, questions about MoleSafe are always welcome. Just reach out to any of our 6 locations and please remember to book your annual screening soon!
Tags: awareness, Detection, Dr. Richard Bezozo, MoleSafe, screenings
Posted in News/Events | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Duke University is testing a promising new Melanoma detection laser - which, for the first time, gives scientists the ability to identify substantial chemical differences between cancerous and healthy skin tissues and prevent unnecessary biopsies, by identifying a pigment more prominent in cancerous moles. As of now it is being tested on biopsied tissue samples, but may eventually be an effective pre-biopsy tool as well.
There are two issues at play here. The first is the need for improved detection of Melanoma. As we’ve noted here repeatedly, the MoleSafe technique takes skin cancer assessments and screenings to the next level, well beyond the “naked eye exam,” which, as I described again in my last post, is a good precursory practice between more rigorous screenings but is out-dated when used as the exclusive approach. The second issue is that there is still the challenge in interpreting the results of biopsies of suspicious moles, no matter how they are discovered.
As the Duke article says,
Doctors typically use a light and a magnifying glass or tissue biopsy, where a pathologist removes suspicious skin cells and looks at them under a microscope, to spot signs of disease. But using a lens and a light is a “17th century” technique that is only 85 percent accurate, at best, and tissue biopsy is not much more reliable…
In 14 percent of biopsy diagnoses, pathologists would disagree on whether or not the sampled cells were cancerous, according to a 2010 study published in the Journal of American Academy of Dermatology. The statistic implies that two pathologists would have opposing diagnoses on 214,000 to 643,000 melanoma cases each year.
Since, as a result, many doctors will follow the “when in doubt, cut it out” philosophy, this new laser holds the promise of maximizing accurate diagnoses, and down the road perhaps being a promising pre-biopsy screening tool as well.
———-
In other screening news, Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek reported on a story posted in the Archives of Dermatology on the increased skin self-exams conducted by kidney transplant patients from good old-fashioned education and information. Compliance in self-exams jumped to 89% among those in the study group, resulting in a dozen patients actually spotting an area of concern and making an appointment with their dermatologist.
The patients in the intervention group were given printed educational materials to promote skin self-examination. The patients in the control group did not receive the educational materials. Follow-up revealed that patients in the intervention group were much more likely to perform skin self-examinations than those in the control group — 89 percent vs. 22 percent.
This just underscores the ongoing need for education and awareness. We hope more physicians will take the time to educate ALL patients – high risk or not.
Tags: Archives of Dermatology, awareness, Businessweek, Detection, Duke University, laser, Melanoma, MoleSafe, research, screenings, Skin Cancer, statistics
Posted in News/Events, Science and Studies, Self Exam | No Comments »
Friday, December 31st, 2010
This update is just a thank you to all our friends and patients of MoleSafe and readers of MelanomaUpdates.com, and warm wishes for a heavenly Twenty-Eleven. As we face a new year lots of us like to reflect on what occurred and what we hope the next year may bring. This time last year we announced our alignment with the Charles C. Harris Skin and Cancer Unit at NYU’s world-renowned Langone Medical Center – the first major hospital in the United States to partner with and adopt the MoleSafe methodology. As you may know, the approach we use is the “gold standard” of skin cancer detection in high occurence countries such as New Zealand and Australia, having the prestigious NYU Medical Center implement the MoleSafe method was a wonderful way to start 2010.
Now, with six clinic locations in the United States – from Albuquerque to Savannah, it is hugely satisfying to know that we’ve helped thousands find peace of mind about an area of concern, or even prolonged or saved some lives via early detection of Melanoma. And skim through our other past blog posts this past year and it’s clear the word about best practices in detection and skin cancer prevention is getting out there more and more. Yet my wish for the New Year is to offer peace of mind and good health to thousands more, from all of us at MoleSafe around the country, as we continue to fight the good fight.
Thank you for sharing this blog with your friends and family — and for remembering that the new year is a good time to renew a commitment to regular skin cancer check ups!
Tags: awareness, Detection, Melanoma, MoleSafe, NYU, Prevention, Skin Cancer
Posted in News/Events, Personal Stories, Updates | No Comments »
Sunday, December 12th, 2010
There’s a new weapon in the fight against tanning – one of the leading contributors to skin cancer and melanoma…And it’s about 5’8 and from Santa Barbara, CA. The weapon? Marissa Miller of Sports Illustrated and Victoria’s Secret fame — oh, and named 2010’s Sexiest Woman in the World by FHM Magazine this year.
Marissa Miller and the Bare Facts about Skin Cancer
This time Miller went beyond the bathing suit or lingerie and took it all off (except for a pair of sneakers) for Marc Jacobs’ new skin cancer awareness campaign called Protect the Skin You’re In. I’m of the belief that if something will help call attention to our cause then who am I to stand in the way — especially when one of our MoleSafe clinic location partners will benefit? In all seriousness, this Hats On Award goes to Marc Jacobs, who will feature the eye-popping ads on yellow t-shirts available at Marc Jacobs boutiques, with all the proceeds going to the NYU Cancer Institute.
It’s also good to read some of the comments on Ms Miller’s blog about the photo and the campaign: a few readers wrote in to note that they had definitely stopped tanning. (Note: Our next post? On what one magazine is suggesting might “scare kids straight…out of the tanning bed.)
One thing we should point out: even though Ms Miller did leave her sneakers on, don’t forget to include your feet, and even between the toes, during your regular skin self-exams!
Tags: awareness, Detection, Marissa Miller, MoleSafe, NYU, screenings, Self Exam, Skin Cancer
Posted in Hats On Award, News/Events, Self Exam, Updates | No Comments »
Sunday, November 21st, 2010
To his credit, Dr Mehmet Oz’s web site features some 1600+ comments resulting from a search on the topic of Melanoma, including an array of videos. We’re launching a “Hat’s On” salute (get it? sun protection vs Hat’s Off?!) from MoleSafe and Melanoma Updates to those doing a good job creating more awareness and quality information on preventing and treating skin cancers.
So, our first Hat’s On Award goes to Dr Oz, for his very informative, and sometimes in-your-face real, series of answers and show segments on this disease.
In this example, he shows off the mole of an audience member to explain the ABCDEs of self-exams. In another more startling audience experience he shows a real tissue sample of the effects of skin cancer.
Dr Oz Showing Skin Cancer Tissue Sample
Even his fans have picked up the gauntlet: here’s a written summary of the above skin cancer prevention show in this blog excerpt created by “DrOzFans.com”:
Dr Oz: How to Avoid Skin Cancer
The Dr Oz Cancer Proof Your Life show including a segment on the number one cancer you can avoid – Skin Cancer. Over 1 million Americans are diagnosed with Skin Cancer and almost 1 person every hour dies from it. Doctor Oz said that Skin Cancer is preventable. A Melanoma usually has pigment, but it does not have to have a color to be dangerous. He showed a sample of a real Skin Cancer that looked very rough and scaly on the surface.
Here is Dr Oz’s list of true / false questions about Skin Cancer. See how many you get right!
1. If you live in North Dakota & use sunscreen, your risk of Melanoma may be greater than someone in South Florida?
Dr Oz said that this is true because people in North Dakota have a higher risk for Skin Cancer for two reasons. One reason is that there is less ozone in North Dakota than in Florida, so the UV rays can get through more easily. The second reason is that Vitamin D helps to prevent Skin Cancer, and Northerners tend to be low in Vitamin D. So Dr Oz suggested taking vitamin D supplements or you can be in the sun for only 15 minutes a day, and after that you must apply sunscreen. Dr Oz said that the right amount of sunscreen to apply is the amount that would fill up a shot glass (1.5 ounces).
2. The Color of Your Clothes Can Protect You From Skin Cancer?
True! Dr Oz said that different colors of clothes do protect you from the sun better. For example, red or blue fabrics are harder for the rays to get through, whereas white or yellow clothing puts you at a greater risk. This past summer I noticed a trend in companies offering clothing with built in sunscreen, which also seems like a great option. Dr Oz said that your face is very prone to getting Skin Cancer, and it is twice as likely to kill you if you get it there, so make sure to cover your head with a hat too.
3. Pedicures Increase Your risk of Skin Cancer? 
Dr Oz said that it is true that Pedicures increase your chances of getting Skin Cancer. You must remove nail polish at least once a month to make sure nothing is growing underneath your nail. Also, the UV light used in nail drying machines may cause cancer, so either ask your nail technician to turn off the UV light or just let your nails air dry.
Tags: ABCDEs, awareness, Best Practices, Detection, Doctor Oz, Dr Mehmet Oz, Dr. Oz, Hat's Off Award, How-To, Melanoma, MoleSafe, Prevention, screenings, Skin Cancer, UV light, Vitamin D
Posted in News/Events, Self Exam, Smart Prevention Practices | No Comments »
