Melanoma: Prevention is a Team Game
To prevent melanoma, the most aggressive skin cancer, you need to work as a team. In fact, thanks to the watchful eye of a family member or friend, flushing out the “ugly duckling”, that suspicious mole that could turn out to be a melanoma, becomes easier. The importance of “teamwork” is therefore the message launched in the sixth edition of “We in Action”, a multidisciplinary event dedicated to prevention and new frontiers in the fight against skin cancer, which opens today in Naples.
Designed by Paul Asciertopresident of the Melanoma Foundation and director of the Melanoma Oncology, Oncologic Immunotherapy and Innovative Therapies Unit of the Pascale Institute of Naples, with the unconditional contribution of Pierre Fabre Innovative Oncology and Regeneron, the event has two special testimonials, undisputed heroes of sport, Fabio Caressa and Giuseppe Bergomi.
“Years of experience have taught me that ‘teamwork’ works,” Ascierto emphasizes. “Two out of five melanoma diagnoses occur because a family member or friend noticed the presence of a suspicious lesion that later turned out to be a melanoma. And many times it is always a loved one who reminds us to put on sunscreen before exposing ourselves to the sun or to spread it on parts of the body that are difficult to reach on our own.”
Teamwork is also what has allowed us to transform tumors, melanoma in particular, from killers to curable and recoverable diseases.
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Collaboration between scientists and doctors
“The enormous progress made in recent years in the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma is due precisely to the close collaboration between scientists and doctors with different specializations – Ascierto highlights -. In the face of an increase in cases of melanoma, which has now become the third most frequent tumor before the age of 50, thanks to new treatments, particularly immunotherapy, life expectancy for patients with early-stage melanoma reaches 95% 10 years after diagnosis”. It is estimated that this form of skin cancer affects 1 in 55 men and 1 in 73 women in Italy. Last year, approximately 12,700 new diagnoses were estimated, of which 7,000 were among men and 5,700 among women. The 5-year survival rate has reached 88% among men and 91% among women, but prevention and early diagnosis remain essential. “Both goals – prevention and early diagnosis – are achievable if each of us looks at the other in the belief that we are all playing on the same team,” Ascierto emphasizes.
The testimonials
Who better than Fabio Caressa and Giuseppe Bergomi can testify to the importance of teamwork in sports, as well as in life. “If there’s one thing I’ve understood after years of sports commentary, it’s that if you want to excel on the field, and in life in general, you have to be a team player,” confirms Caressa, a well-known journalist and sports commentator, famous for his commentary of Italy’s victory at the 2006 World Cup.
“In football, as in life, teamwork is a fundamental component of success: there is no victory if you don’t work together for a common goal,” adds Giuseppe Bergomi, Italian football legend and world champion in 1982. “Thanks to the giant steps we have made in the treatment of melanoma, today we have before us a precious opportunity that we cannot miss: working together – scientists, doctors and patients – to knock out this tumor,” concludes Ascierto.
