Booklet: What You Need to Know about Skin Cancer

Introduction

Each year, about a million people in the United States learn that they have skin cancer. This National Cancer Institute (NCI) booklet will give you some important information about this disease. It explains how skin cancer is diagnosed and treated and has information about preventing this disease.

Words that may be new to readers appear in italics. Definitions of these words and other terms related to cancer can be found in the Glossary. For some words, a "sounds-like" spelling is also given.

Other NCI booklets are listed in the Other Booklets section. Our materials cannot answer every question you may have about skin cancer. They cannot take the place of talks with doctors, nurses, and other members of the health care team. We hope our information will help with those talks.

Research has led to better methods of diagnosing and treating this disease. It is encouraging to know that skin cancer is now almost 100 percent curable if found early and treated promptly.

Our knowledge about skin cancer and other types of cancer is increasing rapidly. For up-to-date information or to order this publication, call the NCI-supported Cancer Information Service (CIS) toll free at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

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