What You Really Need To Know About Moles And Melanoma

Comprehensive information about melanoma for patients and family members as well as those who are concerned about getting the disease. Throughout the world, the incidence of malignant melanoma is increasing at an alarming rate. This dramatic rise is largely due to more frequent and prolonged exposure to intense sun, the result of major changes in clothing styles, recreation, and lifestyle (including widespread access to midwinter resort vacations). Significantly, recent scientific studies have shown an increased number of moles on, and a higher rate of melanoma in, people with the greatest sunscreen use, pointing out the mistaken belief that using sunscreen means getting a "safe" tan. The truth is that most sunscreen provides protection from UVB rays—the rays that cause the sunburn you see and feel—but not from UVA rays—the cancer-causing rays that penetrate deeper into the skin. In this book, physicians Jill R. Schofield and William A. Robinson team up to provide comprehensive information about melanoma for patients and family members as well as those who are concerned about getting the disease. They provide the latest information on prevention, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and follow-up, and answer a host of questions, such as: • I use a number 15 sunscreen. Is that enough? • I have been under a lot of stress lately. Did that make me get melanoma? • If the melanoma comes back, when will it happen? • Is there a blood test to tell if the melanoma has spread? • Is a mole more likely to turn into melanoma if it's in a place where my clothes rub? In addition, the authors describe who is at risk and tell readers how to determine their level of risk; describe skin warning signs and unusual forms of melanoma; talk about melanoma in children, pregnant women, and people whose immune systems are compromised; and take a look at what's on the horizon in diagnosis and treatment. The book is fully illustrated with color photographs and line drawings and includes a glossary and a guide to resources—support and advocacy organizations, and web sites—for people with melanoma.

This valuable handbook, written by two renowned dermatologists, is for melanoma patients, their families, friends, health professionals, and every person interested in staying healthy. Complete with full-color photographs, a specially compiled list of support groups and services, and a glossary.

This report, which was developed by an expert committee of the Institute of Medicine, reviews the first three services listed above. It is intended to assist policymakers by providing syntheses of the best evidence available about the effectiveness of these services and by estimating the cost to Medicare of covering them. For each service or condition examined, the committee commissioned a review of the scientific literature that was presented and discussed at a public workshop. As requested by Congress, this report includes explicit estimates only of costs to Medicare, not costs to beneficiaries, their families, or others. It also does not include cost-effectiveness analyses. That is, the extent of the benefits relative to the costs to Medicareâ€"or to society generallyâ€"is not evaluated for the services examined. The method for estimating Medicare costs follows the generic estimation practices of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The objective was to provide Congress with estimates that were based on familiar procedures and could be compared readily with earlier and later CBO estimates. For each condition or service, the estimates are intended to suggest the order of magnitude of the costs to Medicare of extending coverage, but the estimates could be considerably higher or lower than what Medicare might actually spend were coverage policies changed. The estimates cover the five-year period 2000-2004. In addition to the conclusions about specific coverage issues, the report examines some broader concerns about the processes for making coverage decisions and about the research and organizational infrastructure for these decisions. It also briefly examines the limits of coverage as a means of improving health services and outcomes and the limits of evidence as a means of resolving policy and ethical questions.