Why are so many Black patients dying of skin cancer? (21 July 2022)

Summary

Patients and providers often don't recognise skin cancer on darker skin. Medical school faculty and students are trying to change that.

Content

As a dermatologist practicing in Detroit, Michigan, a city where the population is more than 80% people of colour, Meena Moossavi has seen how health inequities have disproportionately harmed her patients. At times, her patients of colour have come to her with late-stage skin cancer that she believes may have been better treated if it had been detected earlier.

Because of a lack of awareness of the risks of skin cancer among Black people and clinicians’ lack of experience diagnosing skin conditions in people with darker skin, melanoma for Black patients can go untreated far longer than when it’s identified for White patients, Moossavi explains in this article.