Melanoma: Public Health Impact of DCEG Research
DCEG researchers have made a significant impact on the study of melanoma by identifying and characterizing dysplastic nevi as the major risk factor. This finding informed guidelines for melanoma screening and clinical management in high-risk families and in the general population (Reimer et al., 1978; Greene et al., 1985a, 1985b; Tucker et al., 1997).
Our longitudinal family studies allowed for the creation of a clinical atlas depicting melanoma and precursor lesions, the creation of training videos to help healthcare providers examine high-risk families, and the development of an online risk calculator, the NCI Melanoma Risk Asssessment Tool, to estimate an individual’s probability of developing melanoma (Tucker et al., 2002; Fears et al., 2006).