This is Ask Okanagan with Phil Johnson, a quick take with trusted local professionals. This is Ask Okanagan, brought to you by the Dr. Ben Wiese Private Skin Cancer Clinic. Dr. Wiese is in studio with me.

Sir, a very good friend of mine, well known in this community, Ted Farr, died of melanoma developed on top of his head, probably because of his years in a convertible. Can we beat melanoma or will it always get us?

Great news. These days we’ve got amazing treatments available where 10 years ago it was definitely a different conversation. These days the really, really good news is even if we find a very advanced melanoma, we do have amazing treatments available and the docs at BC Cancer do an amazing job at helping these patients. The shocking part of the statistics is still in North America, 2 people die from melanoma every hour. So it is about early detection, making sure that we find those cancers as early as possible. But also, if you are diagnosed with melanoma, it’s not the end. There’s always hope, and we do have amazing treatments available.

In Ted’s case, they, they operated and literally cut a great big square off the top of his head, took another piece of skin from another part of his body, and by plastic surgery put it on. He thought he had it beat, but he didn’t. I’m thinking that wouldn’t surprise you.

I think what is always sad about cases like that, would be is that cancer is multitudinal in the sense that there’s usually a lot of factors that plays a role. Unfortunately, the older we get, the more there’s also a chance that how your heart, how your kidneys, how your liver is also interacting with treatments, reconstructive surgeries, and all all those kind of things. And this is where it’s really multifactorial in what your outcome is going to be. But again, I think I’m also a big advocate to tell my patients, make your mess your message. And when you are diagnosed with something that’s bad, do your best to tell people to help with that awareness in finding those cancers just as early as possible. And do whatever you can to protect your skin. And don’t be afraid.

Right, right. I think that’s definitely one thing where I think we can sometimes be a little bit ignorant, where it’s like, oh yeah, I’ve had the spots for so long. One of the biggest misperceptions about skin cancer is skin cancer is not painful. You know, so again, you think that it needs to be bad. If it’s bad, it needs to be painful. But skin cancers in most cases are not painful, you know, so you don’t even know you have it. And then of course the other part is also make sure that it, it doesn’t have to be on a sun-exposed area. You can develop skin cancer, specifically melanoma, anywhere on your body. If we think about Bob Marley, he passed away from a melanoma on his toe. And again, you know, that was not due to sun exposure, but genetics.

Dr. Ben Wiese from the Ben Wiese Private Skin Cancer Clinic. Where can I find you?

The easiest would be my website, drbenwiese.com.
Ask Okanagan with Phil Johnson.