Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLC), say that yearly full body examinations are not really including checkups for skin cancer. Given that it is already summer, people are often out under the sun to celebration their vacations, especially students. Sadly, primary health care providers usually do not include skin disease detection in physical tests.
Alarmingly, the rate of skin cancer rises for both men and women in the United States. For the record, the disease is also known as melanoma. As a matter of fact, skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in America.
Thus, per Science Daily, UCLC experts are now debating the efficiency of annual physical exams. They say that these tests are not helping to detect the disease in its earlier stages when, in fact, they can easily do so. In 2016, the US Preventive Service Task Force concluded that there is insufficient evidence to recommend routine full body skin exams for adults.
Nevertheless, a group of dermatologists and oncologists published in the journal "Future Medicine" their desire to change the current practice. Apparently, they are asking the Preventive task Force to revise its stance on full body inspections. The study first came out in March.
In it, according to News Wise, the authors "disagreed" with the findings of the task force. They clarified that yearly body screenings of "high risk" individuals could potentially help reduce skin cancer deaths. As the summer season reaches its peak, more people will plan to go out in the sun with very minimal knowledge about the disease.
For his part, Dr. Philip Scumpia stressed that there are conflicting recommendations over full body skin inspections. Scumpia is a renowned dermatologist and a derma pathologist. The UCLC study will pave the way to the understanding of why dysfunctional immune system develops melanoma cases in the future.
