Right arm for melanoma risk checks

Tuesday October 20th, 2015

Counting moles on the right arm may be a good way of identifying patients at risk of melanoma, according to British researchers.

Researchers at King's College, London, set out to find a way of avoiding the use of the time-consuming and difficult count across the whole body.

They say the right arm has proved to be the best "proxy" site for the whole body.

The study has so far shown that counting moles on the right arm can identify those with the most on the whole body.

Researchers found that people with 11 moles or more on the right arm were most likely to have more than 100 on the whole body.

A woman with seven moles on her right arm was nine times as likely as others to have more than 50 on the whole body.

The findings come from a study of more than 3,500 female twins conducted between 1995 and 2003. The researchers say they tested their initial findings on a second group of people, both male and female, involved in a British study of melanoma.

Researcher Simone Ribero said: "This study follows on from previous work to identify the best proxy site for measuring the number of moles on the body as a whole. The difference here is that it has been done on a much larger scale in a healthy Caucasian population without any selection bias and subsequently replicated in a case control study from a similar healthy UK population, making the results more useful and relevant for GPs.

"The findings could have a significant impact for primary care, allowing GPs to more accurately estimate the total number of moles in a patient extremely quickly via an easily accessible body part.

"This would mean that more patients at risk of melanoma can be identified and monitored."

Prediction of high naevus count in a healthy UK population to estimate melanoma risk October 2015; doi: 10.1111/bjd.14216 [abstract]

Tags: Cancer | Dermatology | NHS | UK News

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