What is Skin Cancer Screening?
Screening is looking for cancer before a person has any symptoms. This can help find cancer at an early stage. When abnormal tissue or cancer is found early, it may be easier to treat. By the time symptoms appear, cancer may have begun to spread.
Skin cancer is the most common of all cancers, accounting for nearly half of all cancer cases in the United States. Basal and squamous cell skin cancers occur most often, but melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer. Although melanoma accounts for only about 4 percent of skin cancer cases, it causes about 79 percent of skin cancer deaths. When found in its early stages, skin cancer has a high survival rate.