Survey finds ironic aspect of melanoma over-diagnosis

Although a survey of pathologists who diagnose melanoma say the skin cancer is over-diagnosed, that view doesn’t affect their behavior, research finds.

As the most serious type of skin cancer, a melanoma diagnosis carries emotional, financial, and medical consequences.

“Over-diagnosis is the diagnosis of disease that will not harm a person in their lifetime. If melanoma is being over-diagnosed, it means that too many people are getting the scary news that they have cancer, and receiving and paying for unnecessary treatment,” says Kathleen Kerr, professor of biostatistics in the University of Washington School of Public Health.

Kerr recently published results of a study involving more than 100 dermatopathologists—pathologists who specialize in skin diseases and who diagnose melanoma—to find out if they believe that melanoma over-diagnosis is a public health issue in the United States and whether that belief affects their own conclusions. The pathologists received biopsy slides to diagnose and took surveys on their perceptions of over-diagnosis.

The National Institutes of Health supported the study, which appears in JAMA Dermatology. Kerr discusses the results here:

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