Who attends skin cancer screening in Western Australia? Results from the Lions Cancer Institute Skin Cancer Screening Program.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the characteristics of persons attending a skin cancer screening clinic in Western Australia and compare the effectiveness of screening in different socio-demographic subgroups.


METHODS
Questionnaires were completed by 5,950 self-selected participants who voluntarily attended the Western Australian Lions Cancer Institute's targeted skin cancer screening clinics during the period 1996-2003. A risk assessment technique was used to identify individuals at high risk of developing melanoma. Provisional diagnoses of suspicious lesions were given at the screening by a medical specialist. Suspicious lesions were later matched with histopathologically confirmed malignant melanomas reported to the Western Australia Cancer Registry.


RESULTS
Fifty-seven per cent of attendees were female. The mean age of attendees was 53 years. The yield of suspicious malignant melanomas detected was 24.7 per 1,000 participants screened; the yield of confirmed malignant melanomas detected was 3.0 per 1,000 participants screened. Persons over 50 years of age were three times more likely to have a histopathologically confirmed malignant melanoma detected at the screening than those younger than 50 years (p = 0.049).


CONCLUSIONS
The yield of confirmed melanomas detected by the Lions Cancer Institute is among the highest reported by a skin cancer screening program. This may have been attributable to the risk assessment technique used by the program.


CONCLUSIONS
A free community skin cancer screening program that targets high-risk individuals can detect melanomas.
Williams
Heather A
HA
School of Population Health M707, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009. heatherw@sph.uwa.edu.au
Fritschi
Lin
L
Reid
Alison
A
Beauchamp
Colin
C
Katris
Paul
P
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014904:Western Australia