Skin Check

Melanoma is the most dangerous skin cancer. It can spread to other parts of the body and become a deadly disease.

Queensland has the highest recorded incidence rate of melanoma recorded from all western countries where accurate records exist.

Every person over 16 should have a yearly skin check. Patients with a history of melanoma, or other skin diseases may need to have these regular checks more often. Any freckle, mole or lump changing in size, shape or colour should be checked by your GP.

Sunburn whether frequent or intermittent is a major factor in the development of melanoma, particularly in children. However, melanoma can also occur on non sun-exposed skin.  People who burn easily, and either never or rarely tan, are at a much higher risk than people with darker skin who tan easily.

Other additional risk factors include a tendency to freckle, having more than 50 moles on the body, red or blond hair and blue eyes.

Here at the Hub Medical Centre we use modern computerised dermatoscope technology (Mole Mate). It helps the doctors to diagnose and monitor skin lesions (we take high resolution pictures of your skin).

As required, we can perform skin biopsies, at the time of consultation (if required) or make another appointment time to perform a total excision of the lesion. In complicated cases we refer our patients to our skin specialist Dr Tony Fitzgerald or alternatively to Dermatologists or Plastic & General Surgeons.