Recent New Zealand research which showed the incidence of dangerous thick melanoma has not declined with increased skin cancer education should not be seen as a reason to ignore skin checks, University of Otago researcher Dr Tony Reeder says.
It was found that nearly 15 years after early detection strategies were introduced to educate the public, the incidence of melanomas greater than 3mm had not decreased in the last decade.
Dr Reeder said it could be that it is too early to see the impact of early detection on thick melanomas or that the strategies identify melanomas which are unlikely to progress, missing thicker, more dangerous, nodular melanomas.
With melanoma, people expected to see raised dark lumps, but nodular ones could be quite pale and flat.
It took quite a bit of skill to recognise them.
Dr Reeder said later this year new clinical practice guidelines for the management of melanoma would be released and it was hoped that would draw attention to the issue.
It was important people continued to have skin checks with their health professional, particularly in those areas of the body which were difficult to see.
People should also not confuse early detection of possible changes in their skin with measures to prevent skin cancer in the first place.
The research did not mean that the " slip, slop, slap" message was not working or not valid.
That was not its focus.
In the study, researchers analysed figures from the New Zealand Health Information Service of registered cancers to see if thick melanomas (greater than 3mm) had decreased in incidence between 1994 and 2004 because of detection strategies.
The study was published in the most recent New Zealand Zealand Medical Journal.
Dr Reeder said the study was a baseline from which to work.
