Cork-based oncologist urges public to be aware of skin cancer risks

Advanced skin cancer kills about half of people affected within six months but using suncream and avoiding sun-beds can help reduce risk, a leading oncologist now working in Ireland has advised.

Anna Olsson-Brown, the new professor of clinical trials at Cork University Hospital and University College Cork, called on people to be aware of these risks.

The risk increases for people with pale skin, she said, saying: “Even if you never leave Ireland, you are still at significant risk of skin cancer.

“This is why we now recommend that everyone wears sunscreen if you’re just going about your normal business. If it’s particularly sunny, you can get sunburn so definitely wear suncream on sunny days but even if it’s cloudy we recommend wearing SPF.

“There’s a very clear relationship between skin cancers and sunbeds.”

Prof Olsson-Brown supports stopping use of sunbeds here, saying: “They pose such an increased risk of melanoma.”

Get moles checked out

She urged people to have moles checked out: “About 50% of people who get metastatic melanoma still go on to die of their melanoma so it is still a disease we want to prevent rather than try and treat.”

However, advances in care have seen many patients benefit, she added.

“If we think about 10 years ago, the average prognosis for someone with metastatic melanoma, when it had been inside of them and spread from the skin, was about six months from diagnosis to death,” she said.

“Now with the treatments we have, the immunotherapies, about 50% of people are living to 10 years and beyond. So it’s very much improved. That means the other 50% aren’t having that benefit. We’re still seeing those patients dying of their cancer at some point.”

She is just a few months into her new role as UPMC professor of cancer clinical trials.

UPMC is an American non-profit health body with centres in Waterford, Tipperary, Limerick, Cork, and elsewhere in Ireland.