Burton R C
Discipline of Surgical Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.
Curr Opin Oncol. 1995 Mar;7(2):170-4. doi: 10.1097/00001622-199503000-00013.
Public education campaigns to encourage early diagnosis of melanoma have been conducted in a number of countries with predominantly white populations for more than a decade. During the mid to late 1980s the incidence of melanoma has increased sharply above long-term trends in some of these populations. There is evidence that these campaigns can lead to earlier diagnosis of the disease, and thus advancement of the time of diagnosis certainly accounts for some of the recent incidence increases. However, it is possible that earlier diagnosis has also uncovered a preexisting nonfatal (nonmetastasizing) form of melanoma, and that this accounts for a substantial proportion of increases in incidence. Although this should not alter public education for early diagnosis of melanoma, it should give caution to current enthusiasm for population screening for the disease.
在一些以白人为主的国家，开展鼓励黑色素瘤早期诊断的公众教育活动已有十多年。在20世纪80年代中后期，其中一些人群中黑色素瘤的发病率急剧上升，超过了长期趋势。有证据表明，这些活动能够促使疾病得到更早诊断，因此诊断时间的提前无疑是近期发病率上升的部分原因。然而，早期诊断也有可能发现了一种先前存在的非致命（非转移性）黑色素瘤，而这在发病率上升中占了很大比例。虽然这不应改变黑色素瘤早期诊断的公众教育，但应提醒目前对该疾病进行人群筛查的热情。
