Melanoma Monday in May

Written by Dr Shelley Ji Eun Hwang
Recently, we have successfully held ‘Melanoma Monday in May’ education forum for the general public at Westmead hospital auditorium on 23rd of May. This forum was aimed at educating patients and their families from the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma.
The first speaker was Professor Mann (geneticist) who talked about various genes and risk factors involved in developing melanoma; the second speaker was Dr Zhao (dermatology research fellow) who talked about primary preventions of melanoma; the third speaker was Dr Hwang, myself (dermatology research fellow) who talked about imaging tools such as a conventional dermoscopy, digital dermoscopy, confocal microscopy and full body photography, available in detecting melanomas; the fourth speaker was Dr Howle (surgical oncologist) who discussed about wide local excision and sentinel lymph node biopsies; and last but not least Dr Carlino (medical oncologist) talked about treatment options available for advanced melanoma. The session was chaired by A/Professor Fernandez-Penas (Head of Department, Dermatology), and we had about 75 patients and families who attended this session. At the end of the session, many patients were able to ask specific questions and those questions were addressed by great experts in the field. We thank all the patients, friends and families who attended the forum and all the doctors and admins involved in organising the session.
If you would like to discuss about full body photography services with a doctor from the dermatology team, please call us on 9845 5686 or email us on wm.derm.ct@sydney.edu.au