Australians should be confident that their generalist GP is trained to an acceptable level of competence in skin cancer diagnostics
In this issue of the MJA, Pandeya and colleagues report their study of a sample of 1683 Queensland adults diagnosed with first melanomas between 2011 and 2019.1 Their article provides an authoritative insight into who treats melanoma in Queensland and how they treat it.
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- 1. Pandeya N, Olsen CM, Shalit MM, et al. The diagnosis and initial management of melanoma in Australia: findings from the prospective, population‐based QSkin study. Med J Aust 2023; 218: 402‐407.
- 2. Wu A, Rosen R, Selva D, Huilgol SC. Proportion of melanoma excisions performed by different specialties in Australia. Australas J Dermatol 2018; 59: 243‐245.
- 3. Whiting G, Stocks N, Morgan S, et al. General practice registrars’ use of dermoscopy: prevalence, associations and influence on diagnosis and confidence. Aust J Gen Pract 2019; 48: 547‐553.
- 4. Rosendahl C, Hansen C, Cameron A, et al. Measuring performance in skin cancer practice: the SCARD initiative. Int J Dermatol 2011; 50: 44‐51.
- 5. Skin Cancer College Australasia. Fellowship. 2022. www.skincancercollege.org/fellowship (viewed Mar 2023).
- 6. University of Queensland. Master of Medicine. 2022. https://study.uq.edu.au/study‐options/programs/master‐medicine‐5398 (viewed Mar 2023).
- 7. Kelly J, Teddy L, Beer T, et al. Cancer Council Australia Melanoma Guidelines Working Party. Clinical question: What type of biopsy should be performed for a suspicious pigmented skin lesion? In: Clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of melanoma. Updated 17 May 2018. https://wiki.cancer.org.au/australiawiki/index.php?oldid=186215 (viewed Mar 2023).
- 8. Shao E, Blake T, Po‐Chao F, et al. Prospective study of pigmented lesions managed by shave excision with no deep margin transection of melanomas. Australas J Dermatol 2020; 61: 269‐272.
- 9. Welch HG, Mazer BL, Adamson AS. The rapid rise in cutaneous melanoma diagnoses. N Engl J Med 2021; 384: 72‐79.
- 10. Cancer Council Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information. Australian Cancer Atlas; version 09‐2018. https://atlas.cancer.org.au (viewed Mar 2023).
- 11. Rosendahl C Whiteman D. Is overdiagnosis a price worth paying in melanoma? AusDoc, 11 Mar 2020. https://www.ausdoc.com.au/dermoscopy/overdiagnosis‐price‐worth‐paying‐melanoma (viewed Mar 2023).
- 12. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. General Record of Incidence of Mortality (GRIM) books. Updated 9 June 2022. https://ncci.canceraustralia.gov.au/outcomes/cancer‐mortality/cancer‐mortality (viewed Mar 2023).
- 13. International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization. Age‐standardized rate (world) per 100 000, mortality, males and females. Melanoma of skin: Australia, New Zealand. Cancer Over Time, 2023. https://gco.iarc.fr/overtime/en/dataviz/trends?populations=3600_55400&sexes=1_2&types=1&multiple_populations=1&cancers=12&scale=linear&min_zero=1&smoothing=0 (viewed Mar 2023).
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