After your skin check: What’s next?

Managing current issues

Skin lesions (spots, lumps or rashes) that you have noticed or that have been detected by your doctor during a skin check may need treatment to cure them or reduce the risk of serious skin cancer:

• Lesions that your doctor believes are skin cancer.
• Lesions that have suspicious features and require a biopsy for diagnosis and/or determining further treatment.
• Pre-cancerous lesions that might develop into skin cancer if untreated.
• Skin conditions that make diagnosing and treating skin cancers difficult.

Your doctor will manage the issue by recommending or prescribing treatment, and sometimes by treating the lesion during your consultation. You might need to return to the clinic for a procedure, or a repeat examination after applying a cream or taking medication.

Enable early diagnosis of skin cancers

We can’t always prevent skin cancers from developing, but we can reduce their impact if we find them as early as possible. This means smaller procedures (sometimes without surgery) and much less chance of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body and causing serious illness or death.

Follow-up visits

One of the ways your doctor can diagnose early skin cancers is to monitor how unusual skin lesions over time. So if your doctor recommends a follow-up check up, ensure you keep your appointment as the examination is part of the early detection process.

Your doctor might have identified low-risk spots that probably are not skin cancer, but don’t look entirely normal. If this happens, you will probably be asked to return to the clinic for follow-up examination and photography of these atypical spots.

Self-checking your skin

Examine your skin systematically and regularly for signs of skin cancer. These will usually appear as new or changing spots or lumps. They are often “ugly ducklings” which don’t resemble other moles, spots or lumps on the skin. If you find one, book an appointment for a single mole check to have it assessed by a skin cancer doctor.

Using the MoleScope app, you can access all the photos we’ve taken of your moles and body regions at Spot Check Clinic.

Photographing your moles

If you wish, you can add to the record by photographing your moles with the MoleScope app. This allows you to keep track of their size, shape and colour so you can know if they are growing or changing. MoleScope also allows you to take mole mapping photos, the same way we do in the clinic, allowing you to check for new or changing spots.

Learn more on how to photograph your moles.

Reduce your risk of new skin cancers

Ultraviolet exposure

The best-known way of reducing your risk of future skin cancers is by avoiding excessive ultraviolet radiation. Whenever the UV index is 3 or greater, you should protect yourself from the sun.

1. Slip on clothing that covers the skin well, preferably with a collar and long sleeves.
2. Apply sunscreen liberally and frequently.
3. Wear a hat that shades your face, ears and neck.
4. Wear sunglasses.
5. Seek shade under buildings, umbrellas, trees or other shelters.

The SunSmart Global UV app can inform you when the UV index is forecast to be high enough to increase the risk of skin cancer. You can even set an alarm to remind you when you need to start being sunsmart for the day.

Download: SunSmart app for iOS | SunSmart app for Android

Other ways of reducing the risk

For some people, there are highly effective ways of reducing skin cancer risk. These include:

• Vitamin B3 (niacinamide) 500mg taken twice daily.
• Topical treatment of sun-damaged skin with fluorouracil/calcipotriol cream.
• Fractional laser treatment of sun-damaged skin.

Your doctor can advise if any of these methods would be suitable for you.

Treat sun-damaged skin

Sun-damaged skin isn’t just a cosmetic concern. Skin cancers are more likely to develop in areas of sun damage, especially if there are many solar keratoses.

We offer and recommend a range of treatments to improve the health and appearance of sun-damaged skin.

• BBL intense pulsed light therapy.
• Laser skin treatments.
• Topical treatments, including prescription retinoid, vitamin B3 (niacinamide) and vitamin C.
• LED light therapy.
• Microneedling.

Our skin cancer/cosmetic doctors and registered nurse can advise on what treatments would be suitable, based on your skin type, concerns and budget.