Norfolk patients are starting to benefit from a new test to see if skin cancer has spread.The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital is the first in the East of England to offer a more accurate and less invasive test called sentinel lymph node biopsy.
Norfolk patients are starting to benefit from a new test to see if skin cancer has spread.
The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital is the first in the East of England to offer a more accurate and less invasive test called sentinel lymph node biopsy.
With skin cancer rates rising rapidly in this country, the test will benefit growing numbers of people. Up until now people with melanoma, or skin cancer, had to regularly attend clinic and their doctor would feel for enlarged lymph nodes and the cancer would often grow to a large size before it could be detected. The alternative was to have a whole group of lymph nodes removed, perhaps unnecessarily.
The number of people getting melanoma in the UK has quadrupled since the 1970s. More than 8,900 people are diagnosed with melanoma each year, making it the 7th most common cancer and particularly common in the 20-40 year old age group.
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