More than 2,500 people have already participated in the campaign “Antes de dejar a ello la piel, consulta”, launched by the College of Pharmacists of Barcelona (COF) and the Melanoma Unit of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, to detect the risks of skin cancer, the most common cancer in Spain.
With more than 280 pharmacies in Barcelona collaborating, the pharmacists are assessing the risk of skin cancer in citizens who visit the pharmacy, in order to raise awareness of the risks of sun exposure and take measures to prevent melanoma. Dr. Malvehy Guilera, dermatologist at Centro de Diagnosis Dermatologica and member of Top Doctors, is part of this new project for dermatological health.
Visiting the pharmacy to find out your risk of skin cancer
This campaign, initiated by the COF of Barcelona, in coordination with the Melanoma Unit of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, is being carried out from May 23, World Melanoma Day, until June 13, European Skin Cancer Prevention Day, with the sponsorship of Almirall, Avène, Ladival and La Roche-Posay. During this time, any citizen who visits any of the participating pharmacies will receive an assessment of their risk factors for skin cancer, carried out by a pharmacist trained in the subject.
The pharmacist’s assessment is based on a brief questionnaire with questions regarding the participant’s family history or dermatological control, as well as a quick skin assessment. If any of the skin cancer risk criteria are met, a medical visit will be recommended. The pharmacist will provide guidance on the preventive measures to be followed depending on your risk and “pharmacies are a very important health promotion agent in our society, and through this type of campaign, pharmacists can effectively facilitate information and recommendations on skin cancer prevention”, comments Dr. Josep Malvehy, coordinator of the Melanoma Unit at Hospital Clínic Barcelona. Josep Malvehy, coordinator of the Melanoma Unit of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona: “The campaign ‘Before leaving the skin, consult’ aims to inform, educate, raise awareness and detect individuals with significant risk factors for skin cancer, who should go to the doctor for a skin check-up in order to detect hidden skin cancer. The Melanoma Unit of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona has designed a different campaign together with the COF team, which will allow us to better define the prevention strategies for this disease,” he adds.
Depending on the results of the assessment, if the participant is not at risk of skin cancer, he/she will be given a brochure with advice on how to protect him/herself from the sun and not be exposed to its harmful effects. Meanwhile, if there is a risk, in addition to the recommendations on sun protection, a medical check-up with a dermatologist will be recommended for follow-up.
Helping cancer prevention, also online
In addition to the face-to-face campaign in the pharmacy, anonymous responses to the questionnaire are also being recorded in an online application. This procedure will provide useful data to improve education and detection of the most common cancer in our country, but with very high cure rates if detected early.