31 October 2019This recent study suggests skin cancer prevention videos which focus on a single sun protection behaviour are more effective at changing sun protection beliefs and intention than multi-behaviour messages.
22 October 2019Conducted by Adjunct Associate Professor Amanda Oakley, this one-day course will address clinical and dermatoscopic diagnosis of common benign and malignant skin lesions, particularly pigmented lesions. All health professionals who undertake skin examinations are invited to attend, whether new to or experienced in dermatoscopy.
6 October 2019PHARMAC are progressing amendment to the Special Authority criteria for both pembrolizumab and nivolumab for advanced melanoma to allow patients who have stopped treatment for reasons other than disease progression or toxicity to recommence funded treatment upon signs of disease progression.
6 October 2019The Health Promotion Agency (HPA) has recently developed a new suite of resources for outdoor workers. These resources ‘bust’ commons myths regarding the sun and support employees and outdoor workers to be SunSmart this summer.
6 October 2019This recent study reported outcomes for real-world patients with advanced melanoma who had elected to discontinue anti-PD-1 therapy with pembrolizumab or nivolumab in the absence of disease progression or treatment-limiting toxicity. Results showed after a median of 18 months after treatment cessation, 78% of patients remained progression-free, and the median time to progression for those who progressed was 12 months.
6 October 2019In 2012 District Health Board public health staff initiated six-monthly visits to commercial solaria to ensure that solarium operators were familiar with best practice procedures to reduce the risks from exposure to ultra-violet (UV) radiation from sunbeds.
The report from the first half of 2019 is now available.
6 October 2019According to this recent study Australian led trial, after local treatment of one to three melanoma brain metastases, adjuvant whole-brain radiotherapy does not provide clinical benefit in terms of distant intracranial control, survival, or preservation of performance status.
6 October 2019This recent study conducted within Australia’s Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) project sought to determine the prevalence of dermatoscope use by general practice registrars when performing skin or pigmented lesion checks. Results showed dermoscopy is performed by general practice registrars in a modest proportion of skin and pigmented lesion checks. Its use influences registrars’ diagnoses and increases their confidence in their diagnoses.
6 October 2019This recent study compared the survival of patients undergoing excision of stage I melanoma with Mohs micrographic surgery with patients receiving traditional wide margin excision. It found treatment of early-stage invasive melanoma with Mohs micrographic surgery was associated with moderately improved overall survival compared with traditional wide margin excision.
6 October 2019This recent study used UVR sensors to provide in-time alerts and personalised UVR exposure information to early stage adult melanoma survivors. According to the study, UVR sensors could be a promising component of a precision behavioural medicine strategy to reduce skin cancer risk.