The Portuguese Skin Cancer Association (APCC) warns today (commemorating Euromelanoma Day) that 90% of deaths due to skin cancers could be avoided. Prevention, say the experts, is ‘fulcral’, and requires ‘early diagnoses’ and ‘control of risk factors’. The costs of treatment of skin cancers run to around €20 million per year. Melanomas – the rarest but most deadly kind – account for an annual cost to the SNS health service of €3.84 million. Roughly 400 people die from skin cancer in Portugal every year (most of them as a result of melanomas); 10% of new cases appearing are melanomas, explain reports.
