Koumaki D, Papadakis M, Kouloumvakou S, Krasagakis K. Awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards sun protection among patients with melanoma and atypical mole syndrome. World J Clin Oncol 2022; 13(7): 587-598 [PMID: 36157160 DOI: 10.5306/wjco.v13.i7.587]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Marios Papadakis, MD, MSc, PhD, Consultant Physician-Scientist, Doctor, Research Scientist, Department of Surgery II, University of Witten-Herdecke, Heusnerstrasse 40, Wuppertal 42283, Germany. marios_papadakis@yahoo.gr
Research Domain of This Article
Dermatology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Control Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Dimitra Koumaki, Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Heraklion, Heraklion 71110, Greece
Marios Papadakis, Department of Surgery II, University of Witten-Herdecke, Wuppertal 42283, Germany
Stamatoula Kouloumvakou, Department of Internal Medicine, Agios Nikolaos General Hospital, Agios Nikolaos 72100, Greece
Konstantinos Krasagakis, Department of Dermatology, University of Crete, Heraklion 71110, Greece
Author contributions: Koumaki D, Papadakis M, and Krasagakis K contributed to designing the study; Koumaki D contributed to collecting and analyzing the data, and writing the paper; Papadakis M contributed to analyzing the data; Kouloumvakou S contributed to collecting the data; Koumaki D, Papadakis M, and Krasagakis K contributed to revising and approving the paper.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the institutional review board of the University Hospital of Heraklion, Greece.
Informed consent statement: All patients gave informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used for analysis are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Marios Papadakis, MD, MSc, PhD, Consultant Physician-Scientist, Doctor, Research Scientist, Department of Surgery II, University of Witten-Herdecke, Heusnerstrasse 40, Wuppertal 42283, Germany. marios_papadakis@yahoo.gr
Received: February 26, 2022 Peer-review started: February 26, 2022 First decision: March 7, 2022 Revised: March 18, 2022 Accepted: June 22, 2022 Article in press: June 22, 2022 Published online: July 24, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Patients with atypical mole syndrome (AMS) have a 3- to 20-fold higher risk of developing malignant melanoma (MM) than individuals without.
Research motivation
The most modifiable risk factor for developing MM is the ongoing ultraviolet exposure.
Research objectives
To assess awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards sun protection among patients with MM and AMS.
Research methods
A written survey was administered to patients with MM, those with AMS, and a control group who attended a specialist mole clinic in Heraklion in Greece.
Research results
In total 121 subjects participated in the study. Their mean age was 43.92 ± 12.55 years. There were 66 (54.4%) females and 55 (45.4%) males. Forty-seven (38.8%) patients had AMS, 26 (21.5%) had a past medical history (PMH) of MM, and 48 (39.7%) attended the clinic for a full skin checkup for their naevi without having AMS or MM. 104 (86%) participants reported using sunscreen. Approximately 74.4% of patients recalled having received advice on how to protect their skin from sunlight. The most mentioned barriers in photoprotection were concerns over adequate vitamin D and lack of time.
Research conclusions
Despite mentioning having received adequate education in photoprotection, adherence to photoprotection practices is suboptimal in patients with MM and AMS.
Research perspectives
Larger prospective studies could be performed comparing awareness, knowledge, and attitudes towards photoprotection among patients with MM and AMS before and after receiving education in photoprotection.
