Dermatologic Care and Sun Protection Practices Need Improvement in Childhood Cancer Survivors
January 2019
in “
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
”
TLDR Childhood cancer survivors need better skin care and sun protection.
The study highlighted that childhood cancer survivors often faced significant delays in dermatologic care, with many waiting over a decade post-therapy for their first dermatology visit. Among 78 patients reviewed, only 24.3% had seen a dermatologist before, and 44.9% had received a full-body skin examination. Despite 71.8% reporting sunscreen use, 35.9% experienced sunburns in the past year. Diagnoses included alopecia (17.9%), scarring (7.7%), atypical nevi (5.1%), and basal cell carcinoma (1.3%). The findings underscored the need for improved dermatologic surveillance and sun protection education to mitigate the risk of serious skin complications in this vulnerable population.