High-risk melanoma skin cancer patients should be monitored in specialized clinics: Aussie researchers

Australians who are at very high risk of melanoma skin cancer should be regularly monitored in specialized surveillance clinics for better treatment, according to latest research in the country.

Such clinics that can include regular monitoring by total body and close-up digital imaging would "cut costs and improve health outcomes as melanoma in this 'very high risk' group would be detected earlier and fewer unnecessary biopsies would be done," the Melanoma Institute Australia, a major melanoma research and treatment center which carried out the latest study, said in a media release Wednesday.

Melanoma is considered one of the deadliest skin cancers. Australia has one of the highest rates of melanoma in the world and the disease is often referred to as its "national cancer," the institute said. More than 13,000 Australians are expected to be diagnosed with melanoma in 2016.

Professor Graham Mann, the institute's research director, said the proposed surveillance would be a "win-win for patients and the national health budget."

"This is a disciplined, low tech but expert procedure that can and should be implemented by the Australian health care system," Mann said.

"It would save more lives and help reduce the costs of melanoma detection and treatment." Endit