Examining skin reduces melanoma deaths.

Taking the time to examine one's skin for potentially fatal skin cancer may reduce the risk of dying of the disease, concludes the first study of skin self-examination (SSE). Researchers from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City found that people who examined themselves-looking for moles that change color, shape, or size-were 44 percent less likely to die of melanoma than those who did not.

"It is very exciting," says study leader Marianne Berwick, an epidemiologist. "The results are very promising, but it is only a first study."

Approximately 35,000 people in the United States develop melanoma each year. When tumors are caught and removed early, 95 percent of patients survive. Nevertheless, the cancer can become very aggressive as it grows; every year, it kills 7,200 people.

The Sloan-Kettering team studied 1,199 white residents of Connecticut. Of those, 650 had just been diagnosed with melanoma that hadn't spread, and 549 were healthy controls. After asking all participants whether they practiced SSE, the researchers followed the health of the participants for 5 years.

After taking into account other known risk factors for skin cancer, such as light hair, eyes, and skin, a propensity to sunburn, and exposure to the sun, the team found that people practicing SSE were 44 percent less likely to die of the disease. They also found that SSE reduced the risk of getting melanoma by 34 percent. The researchers report their findings in the Jan. 3 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

In order for SSE to actually reduce the occurrence of the cancer in the first place, Berwick notes, people must be noticing precancerous growths and having them removed before they progress to melanoma. Thirty-five percent of the control population reported having benign lesions removed.

J. Mark Elwood of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, writes in the journal that while Berwick's results are important, they may not represent a cause-and-effect relationship. He suggests that the researchers test "whether the reduction in melanoma incidence is restricted to subjects whose SSE led to the removal of suspicious skin lesions."

Berwick agrees that the results need to be confirmed by other researchers, and she intends to continue to follow the participants.