Now that your cellphone has a little camera embedded in it, or you got a nice new digital camera for Christmas, here's a way you can use the gadgets to enhance your health: Take pictures of your skin. In particular, take snapshots of your moles. Photographs–and a visit to a dermatologist–are a good way to find out if moles are changing in a way that might lead to cancer.
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The biggest risk factor for melanoma is a pigmented mole that changes shape or size. Traditionally, the way people keep track of them is by self-examination. You look at your legs, or stomach, or shoulder, or wherever you have moles, and try to remember if that's how they looked the last time you checked. This gets pretty hard if you have lots of moles. It's hard to keep their sizes and shapes straight in your mind. If spouses or family members help, they have to keep your moles straight in their minds, which isn't any easier. Was it this big last month? Or was that the one on the other leg? The moles on your back, which you have to check in a mirror, might be the most difficult of all to track.
Digital photography to the rescue, doctors announce in the current Archives of Dermatology. Fifty patients and their moles were photographed at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. New moles showed up, and the patients were asked to check for them, using just their eyes and memories. Then they were asked to check again, holding the photographs for reference. Their ability to spot new or changed moles improved by about 10 percent.
The researchers suggest such photographs could really help people help themselves and prevent some cancers. But not everyone is in and out of a skin cancer clinic frequently enough to take advantage of this. So if you've been wondering just what you can do with that little camera on your cellphone–after you discover it's not that great at capturing the panorama of the Grand Canyon–you might try some mole close-ups. And save them. These photos are not as sophisticated as shots taken by a doctor or hospital, and they are no substitute for regular visits to a skin doctor. But they will give you a visual record, and they should motivate you to look at your skin more closely and to schedule those doctor visits. And that can go a long way toward preventing a deadly disease.
