Increasing Incidence of Melanoma in Hungary

The incidence of melanoma, a skin cancer, is increasing in Hungary, with the number of newly diagnosed cases reaching three thousand a year, the Hungarian state news agency MTI learned at an online press conference on the subject this Thursday.

Eszter Baltás, Associate Professor at the Department of Dermatology and Allergology of the University of Szeged, reporting on the research conducted with 140 melanoma patients, said that one of the important findings of the research is that even those who consider themselves health-conscious and attend other age-related preventive screening tests do not attend dermatological screenings and are not aware of the risks of skin cancer.

She added that more than two-thirds of melanoma patients think they have been taking care of their health in the year before they were diagnosed, but in fact only 15% had asked about the possibilities of detecting skin cancer, and only 13% of patients believed before diagnosis that they were more likely than others to have skin cancer, and 38% did not know that melanoma was a malignant skin tumor before diagnosis.

The study also showed that 71 and 77% of women diagnosed with melanoma had undergone breast and cervical cancer screening, respectively, and 94% of patients had their blood pressure checked regularly, with most of them also aware of their cholesterol levels. In comparison, one in three patients never check their skin, and only half of patients check more than one part of their body. And only 4% have seen images to help detect melanoma," she said. Melanoma is most often detected by the patient (54%), 25% of cases are detected by a doctor and 21% by a partner or family member, she added.

Eszter Baltás stressed that for early detection of melanoma, it is essential for people to be aware of suspected lesions beforehand, both from pictures and informative descriptions. “Regular self-examination makes sense if you know what to look for and what to see a doctor about immediately," she said, adding that two-thirds of the patients in the study had previously done some kind of self-examination, so it is reasonable to assume that they were largely unaware of this.

According to the dermato-oncology specialists involved in the research, early detection is based on knowledge of suspected skin lesions, early awareness of personal risks, regular and accurate self-examination and attentive family members who can help identify the disease.