An unlikely hero emerges in skin cancer battle

Beauty therapists and hairdressers are helping screen for deadly melanomas and taking pressure off an already stressed healthcare system. In fact, they are becoming potential lifesavers by intervening when medical attention might have been delayed.

People who work in the beauty, anti-ageing and hairdressing industries are in a prime position to spot skin abnormalities on a client's face, neck, ear and scalp areas during routine visits.

Therapists spend up to one hour at a time in direct contact with the client's skin multiple times a year, and they can also access hard-to-see spots. With such intimate and frequent interactions, they would know skin better than the client's GP or dermatologist.

The delay in the identification process is a big part of the skin cancer challenge. A therapist noticing a suspicious spot could be the difference between life and death for someone.

We know 90 per cent of melanomas can be treated successfully if caught early, and early detection is associated with high survival rates. It's why an online training course targeting beauty, hair, tattoo and allied health professionals has been set up by NSW TAFE.

The "Spot a Spot?" program aims to increase early awareness and detection to reduce cancer-related deaths. When a therapist notices a suspicious spot or change in the skin and starts a conversation about it, the client can be encouraged to take the next step and have it properly examined by a doctor.

Additionally, by identifying potential skin cancers early rather than people skipping potentially life-saving preventative checks, the cost burden on the already under-pressure healthcare system is lessened. Treatments for melanoma and other skin cancers are the largest cancer cost in the healthcare system, costing over $1.7 billion each year and climbing.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data also shows that 7 per cent of patients delayed or did not see a GP in 2022-23 due to the cost, an increase of 3.5 per cent over the previous 12 months. And according to a State of the Nation in Melanoma report by Insight Economics in 2022, major barriers to early detection include inadequate take up of skin cancer checks as well as cost-related reasons including limited bulkbilling for skin checks.

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Australian skincare brand O Cosmedics CEO Maria Enna-Cocciolone also thinks therapists can be key to early detection.

"Given the scope of treatments therapists perform, we have identified life-threatening basal cell carcinomas and saved many a life and intense treatment trauma that comes with late diagnosis," she said.

"Clients expose most of their body depending on the treatment being performed, areas they or their partner miss. Often clients can't see the spot given its location ... they may have scratched a spot, feel the discomfort, and may not see it changing, yet a therapist can."

Skin cancer is a huge burden as it requires in-person medical consultation by a doctor, an invasive medical procedure and the only option to diagnose skin care is via a biopsy.

There is no national skin cancer screening program, so combining industry know-how is the next best thing for the time being.