Why is Full Body Photography an essential factor in skin checks?

Full Body Pho­tog­ra­phy (AKA Mole Map­ping or Total Body Pho­tog­ra­phy) is an essen­tial part of skin can­cer screen­ing. It involves tak­ing pho­tos of your entire body. These pho­tos are used to track, com­pare, and mon­i­tor moles.

While every­one should have a reg­u­lar skin exam­i­na­tion, some peo­ple are at high­er risk of skin can­cer. This includes peo­ple with:

• More than 100+ moles on their body
• A pre­vi­ous his­to­ry of skin cancer
• A fam­i­ly his­to­ry of skin cancer
• Fair skin that burns easily
• A high num­ber of unusu­al look­ing moles
• An out­door lifestyle

Hav­ing one or more of the above risk fac­tors doesn’t mean you’ll def­i­nite­ly devel­op can­cer, but it does mean pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sures are impor­tant. And this is where Full Body Pho­tog­ra­phy comes in.

MoleMap’s Senior Melanog­ra­ph­er (this is some­one who’s qual­i­fied in skin can­cer and skin imag­ing) Lara Wild explains how Full Body Pho­tog­ra­phy works and what hap­pens if a new or chang­ing mole is found.

Total Body Pho­tog­ra­phy gives us an his­toric record of your entire skin sur­face. This means when we do a skin can­cer check we can see if a mole is new, old, or chang­ing. Many skin can­cers appear as a new lesion on the skin.

With­out Total Body Pho­tog­ra­phy we have no idea if a lesion is new, old or whether it’s changed shape or grown over time. Near­ly a third of melanoma diag­noses are based on changes detect­ed through Total Body Pho­tog­ra­phy in high-risk patients.

Because we can track the moles over time, Full Body Pho­tog­ra­phy also leads to more accu­rate diag­no­sis. This reduces the unnec­es­sary removal of benign (non-can­cer­ous) lesions. Yet, if treat­ment is need­ed the images show us where your moles are locat­ed so we can quick­ly and eas­i­ly find them.

The biggest ben­e­fit of Full Body Pho­tog­ra­phy is spot­ting sus­pi­cious lesions ear­ly. Hav­ing a base­line of images means we can make a side-by-side com­par­i­son at every skin check.

• Effec­tive way to track changes over time
• Allows side-by-side comparison
• Assists with ear­ly detec­tion and diag­no­sis of skin cancer
• Reduces unnec­es­sary removal (exci­sions) of benign lesions
• Cost-effec­tive for high-risk patients (due to few­er excisions)
• Full body reassurance

If we spot any changes or sus­pi­cious look­ing lesions, we will take der­mo­scop­ic (close-up) images. These are sent for spe­cial­ist der­ma­tol­o­gist diag­no­sis. Because Total Body Pho­tog­ra­phy can pick up changes or sus­pect lesions ear­ly, there is greater chance of a pos­i­tive outcome.

To be hon­est, Total Body Pho­tog­ra­phy is safe to per­form and is very low risk for patients. The images are tak­en with a high res­o­lu­tion dig­i­tal cam­era, so you don’t need to wor­ry about radi­a­tion exposure.

Pri­va­cy risks are also min­i­mal. At MoleMap we have a strict pro­ce­dure in place to make cer­tain your images are secure­ly stored. Before your Full Body Pho­tog­ra­phy ses­sion, you’ll be asked to sign a con­sent form. This con­firms you agree to the images being tak­en and are aware how they will be stored.

With­out a doubt, total body pho­tog­ra­phy is an effec­tive tool for the ear­ly detec­tion of skin can­cer. Here are a few things you can do before your ses­sion to help make your images as clear and use­ful as possible.

• Avoid wear­ing make­up or skin cream
• Don’t fake tan if you have sun spots
• Avoid hav­ing laser hair removal for 1 – 2 weeks before your session
• Ensure your skin is clean
• Wear prac­ti­cal and com­fort­able underwear

Even if you don’t have many moles and don’t fall into the high-risk cat­e­go­ry for skin can­cer, Full Body Pho­tog­ra­phy is an effec­tive method for track­ing, com­par­ing, and mon­i­tor­ing moles. Uncer­tain about your skin can­cer risk? Take our quick quiz to check your risk level.

Remem­ber, Total Body Pho­tog­ra­phy is just one tool that can help in the ear­ly diag­no­sis of melanoma. It is part of our Full Body MoleMap and Skin Check+ ser­vices. Oth­er steps you can take to help iden­ti­fy ear­ly warn­ing signs of skin can­cer include learn­ing the tell­tale signs of melanoma and reg­u­lar­ly doing a DIY skin check.

No mat­ter what your risk, if you notice any change to the shape, size or colour of a mole or freck­le, book a Full Body MoleMap. The soon­er melanoma is spot­ted, the greater the like­li­hood of suc­cess­ful treatment.