Cancer campaign: Last year's All-Ireland winning Cork hurlers have teamed up with the Health Service Executive South to help highlight the dangers to sportsmen and others of developing malignant melanoma if they fail to take proper precautions against sunburn.
Consultant dermatologists Dr John Bourke and Dr Fergus Lyons from the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital in Cork linked up with the Cork hurlers before a recent training session at Pairc Uí Rinn to screen them for skin cancers.
Dr Bourke pointed out that the incidence of malignant melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer and that incidences of it in Ireland were rising, with more than 400 cases reported nationally each year.
"It affects all ages and is one of the few cancers to affect young adults," he said.
"In the UK, melanoma is now the second most common cancer in men aged 15-39 years and early detection is vital for successful treatment."
Dr Lyons explained that the main risk for melanoma came from sunburn and that it was particularly important for sports people such as GAA players, who mainly play in the summer months, to protect their skin from the sun.
This was best achieved by keeping shirts on and by protecting exposed areas with a sunblock with a sun protection factor of 15 or above, said Dr Lyons, who similarly advised spectators to use sunblock and wide-brimmed hats to protect delicate areas such as tips of ears.
Melanoma occurs more frequently in women than men, but men tend to present later and more men die of melanoma than women.
Skin cancers in men have increased by 12 per cent in the past five years, as opposed to an increase of just 2.1 per cent increase in women over the same period, Dr Lyons added.
Dr Michelle Murphy, along with Dr Bourke and Dr Lyons, helps to run a rapid access pigmented lesion skin clinic at the South Infirmary Victoria working with plastic surgeons, radiologists, general surgeons as well as an oncologist based at the hospital.
"Any patient with a lesion suspicious for melanoma can be referred by their general practitioner to this dedicated weekly clinic and will be seen by a consultant dermatologist within two weeks.
"Suspicious lesions will usually be removed on the day," said Dr Murphy, a consultant dermatologist at the hospital.
More than 100 patients with melanoma have been detected and treated by the clinic, which was the recipient of a Health Service Excellence award earlier this year.
