Gulf News explores mole mapping as a means of preventing skin cancer

Gulf News

Radio 2 Presenter Emma B visits a Dermatologist in Dubai to have her moles mapped as way of preventing skin cancer. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00So I'm here today at the Derma Skin Care Centre in Dubai, basically for mole mapping.

00:12So what they're going to do, as you can see, I'm covered in them, I have lots of them.

00:15They're going to take digital photography of the moles all over my body, feed them into

00:20a computer to check for irregularities and any changes.

00:25Nobody should underrate the importance of mole scanning or mole mapping in Australia.

00:29There are maybe 500 clinics of mole scanning and those clinics have radically reduced the

00:34rate of death in Australia over 15 years.

00:37So these are very important points to be noticed, early diagnosis, early detection, early check-up.

00:43I believe anything which looks different to you and new to you, either in the form of

00:48change of the pre-existing lesions on your body or the spots on your body, or something

00:55which is new, and if it doesn't disappear over a given period of time, in a given period

01:01of time I would say a couple of weeks, not months, if it's an ordinary inflammatory rash

01:07it should disappear, or with some creams or emollients, some moisturiser.

01:11If it's not disappearing, please see a dermatologist.

01:16We're in the mole mapping room now and what's going to happen, the doctor's going to come

01:20in and he's going to select the moles on my body that he wants to scan and then they

01:26will scan them into this machine here and take readings and we'll see whether there

01:32are any that he doesn't like or whether they're all okay, so hopefully fingers crossed they

01:37will all be okay.

01:39Number one advantage is that it gives us 25-30% more findings about the character of the moles

01:47because we take a penetrating digital image of the mole which gives us a magnified outlook

01:54of the mole and we can see inside colour distribution and granule distribution, grey-blue areas

02:01or vascular pattern under the mole, there are a few things which can find as a danger

02:06signs if they are positive or they are negative, which are not seen from the surface.

02:12So second thing is to record a baseline status of the moles at this stage and then comparing

02:18in the future for any change, so computer is very sensitive, it picks any even minute

02:24change in the character of the mole.

02:26Then we have to determine whether that change which has been picked by the computer is significant

02:33enough to be challenged for removal or we ignore it till the next examination, so this

02:38is the aim of this exercise.

02:41So now it has given the score 0.3, it is a borderline suspicious which is not fully

02:50diagnosed melanoma but not regular mole itself, once we do 30-40-50 moles on you, maybe different

02:59moles can give us different picture and we might find something little more suspicious

03:05than this and we try to act as a proactive strategy of management, so I don't leave the

03:11suspicious moles left unattended, so my approach is that you must go and just get them off,

03:19so rather than allowing them to go to melanoma stage.

03:24Now prevention, again we said early diagnosis, early diagnosis is based on your routine checks

03:32and it doesn't really take longer, it's just 15-20 minutes and one visit a year and it's

03:37only couple of hundreds of money you spend on one meal in good hotel and restaurant,

03:44that money, so if you can spend that money to save your life, it's not a bad deal really,

03:50it's not a bad deal, so my request is please do regular checks.

03:54So from the original malignant melanoma or cancerous mole that I had on my leg which

03:59was a tiny mole that hadn't changed in years, they then had to excise a bigger chunk out

04:04of my thigh, the margin to make sure that they got all the cancer cells in the original

04:09one and basically I will show you the result now and this is what you don't want to end

04:15up with, as I said prevention is definitely better than a cure, you have to catch these

04:19things early.

04:21Living here in the UAE, obviously very sunny, very hot climate, if you're working outdoors

04:27in the sun, playing outdoors, taking part in any kind of outdoor activities, it's really

04:33really important to obviously cover yourself, take precautions, use the sunscreen, cover

04:38up in the dangerous parts of the day and really look after yourself and if you have any kind

04:43of concerns, the best thing to do is head off to your nearest dermatologist and get

04:48yourself checked.

04:57For more information visit www.FEMA.gov

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