Melanoma: Public Health Impact of DCEG Research
DCEG research on melanoma has made a significant impact on the study of melanoma.
DCEG investigators identified and characterized dysplastic nevi as the major risk factor for melanoma. 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 studies have contributed to important milestones in the management of melanoma, including 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).