The decision of the Duchess of York, SaraH Ferguson, to speak about the melanoma that affected her a few months after being treated for breast cancer, was “an important choice. I think the Duchess should be applauded, because this outing has of great importance: it represents a positive spot for prevention. Especially at this moment, considering that Covid has left us a legacy of a gap in diagnoses, due to the lower propensity for checks”. Thus to Adnkronos Salute Paolo Ascierto, director of the Melanoma Oncology, Oncology Immunotherapy and Innovative Therapies Unit at the National Cancer Institute Pascale Foundation in Naples.
Ascierto explains the even greater importance of prevention in relation to the particularities of Sara Ferguson who, he underlines, “has red hair, therefore skin that is very sensitive to ultraviolet radiation and a little more at risk for skin cancer. And even though today we have many drugs to treat these oncological diseases, melanoma in particular, the motto 'prevention is better than cure' still applies.”
On the specific case, “we have no data to be able to comment on but, in general, we can say that the new drugs have changed the natural history of the disease and the fate of those affected. Sarah's story, however, reminds us that if we manage to diagnose the tumor in time, surgery can be the tool that cures it definitively without even having to resort to new drugs”, concludes Ascierto who on the duchess's case underlines how “there is no link between melanoma and breast cancer. The predisposition is more linked to the phototype and skin characteristics”.
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