Risk factors

Avoiding excessive ultraviolet exposure is by far the most effective way to reduce the risk of skin cancer. But there are other risk factors, and other ways of reducing skin cancer risk and improving skin health.

After your skin check, you should have a plan to manage current issues (e.g. skin cancers, suspicious spots, rashes), enable early diagnosis of skin cancers if they occur, reduce your risk of new skin cancers developing and treat existing sun damage to your skin.

Mole mapping adds to the cost of a skin cancer check and people often feel uncomfortable being photographed while they are nearly naked, so it's understandable to ask if molemapping is worth the expense and trouble. The answer isn't always straightforward; for some people, regular mole mapping is highly recommended, and for others, it doesn't have significant clinical benefits.

Choosing the right person or clinic for a mole check or skin check is a crucial step in detecting skin cancer. Your own GP might have experience in diagnosing and treating skin cancers. If not, a skin cancer clinic can be a suitable alternative.

Knowing your skin cancer risk can help decide whether to have a full body check, or to have suspect moles checked individually.

If you have a very high risk of melanoma and more than 100 moles, you should consider having mole mapping every year. There is evidence that mole mapping can allow earlier detection of melanoma in high-risk patients and therefore improve the chances of successful treatment.

If you live in Australia, have white skin and are aged 40 or over, you should probably have a full body skin cancer check every year.