Five dermatology specialists from Lleida take part in the Euromelanoma 2022 skin cancer campaign

Five dermatology specialists from the Arnau de Vilanova University Hospital (HUAV) and skin cancer researchers from the Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida (IRBLleida), headed by the head of dermatology at the HUAV and principal investigator at IRBLleida, Rosa Maria Martí, will participate as volunteers in the Euromelanoma campaign in Spain, which will take place between 5 and 30 June. The dermatologists will carry out skin check-ups for those people who request them through the campaign website: http://euromelanoma.aedv.es/login-paciente.

The initiative is designed to promote awareness, prevention and early diagnosis of skin cancer in the European population. Throughout these days, several dermatology specialists from 50 different countries will carry out the same activity to achieve this goal: to perform free skin check-ups in the population at risk.

There are several risk factors that predispose to the development of skin cancer. Anyone who is concerned about a skin blemish can take a self-diagnosis test, available on the website, and, if they belong to an at-risk group (people who have been burned for recreational reasons, outdoor workers, athletes, people with fair skin or multiple freckles, etc.), they can have a thorough skin check-up by a volunteer dermatologist.

Skin cancer

In Spain, around 300 people are diagnosed with cutaneous melanoma every month. The incidence rate of skin cancer has doubled in our country in the last decades. After the confinements and restrictions, the director of campaigns of the Fundación Piel Sana of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, organiser of the initiative, recognises that "the population has had an imperious need to expose itself to the sun" and that, in some cases, this has been done "without the prior photoadaptation that we carry out each year by slowly stripping off our clothes". For this reason, he stresses the importance of this "increase in sunburn, which may translate into an increase in the incidence of melanomas tomorrow".