Long doctor distance, thicker skin cancer

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- The farther a U.S. patient needs to travel to reach a physician who diagnoses their melanoma, the more likely they are to have thicker skin cancer.

Dr. Karyn B. Stitzenberg of the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues examined factors such as age, sex, poverty rate, travel distance to doctor, living in rural areas and the number of physicians in the area and the diagnosis of 615 patients with melanoma. The researchers also noted Breslow thickness, or thickness of the skin cancer.

The study, published in the Archives of Dermatology, found the median distance to a diagnosing physician was 8 miles and the median Breslow thickness was 0.6 millimeters.

For each 1 mile increase in distance, the average Breslow thickness at diagnosis increased by 0.6 percent and patients who traveled more than 15 miles had tumors 20 percent thicker than those of patients who traveled 15 miles or less.

The Breslow thickness was also associated with age and poverty -- for each 1 percent increase in poverty rate, Breslow thickness increased by 1 percent and Breslow thickness was 19 percent greater for patients aged 51 to 80 years than for those younger than 51.