‘Mole Mobile’ stops in North Bay to offer skin cancer screening

A mobile melanoma cancer clinic pulled into North Bay on Thursday morning and will be back in action there again Friday, where a doctor screens people for skin cancer.

‘Mole Mobile’ is visiting major Canadian cities with long wait times to see a dermatologist and underserved communities to help speed up diagnosis.

Dermatologist Dr. Michael Connolly is helping Melanoma Canada by screening patients by checking for melanoma inside the mobile unit.

“This type of service should be more available to patients,” Connolly said.

Melanoma and skin cancer rates have been increasing across the globe. Incidence rates for new melanoma cases have been rising on average by 1.4 per cent each year over the last 10 years.

When examining patients, Connolly examines what he describes as the ‘ABCs’ of melanoma -- asymmetry, border, colour, diametre and evolving.

These characteristics help health-care professionals recognize suspicious moles or lesions that may warrant further examination.

Common type of cancer

“We check not only for melanoma, but we check for non-melanoma skin cancers, too,” Connolly said.

“Like basal cells, squamous cells and for pre-cancerous lesions.”

Skin cancers are the most common type of cancer diagnosed in men older than 49 and are among the most common cancers diagnosed in youth and young adults.

If detected early, melanoma and skin cancers are largely treatable.

Colleen Piekarski knows the importance of getting checked all too well. In 2013, she discovered a bump on her scalp, which turned out to be Stage 3 melanoma.

Piekarski’s biopsy results were serious. She had immediate head and neck surgery, where a two-inch circle of her scalp and 14 lymph nodes were removed. She then underwent intense rounds of radiation.

She started a drug trial, which was unsuccessful, and she was urgently switched to another trial at Princess Margaret Hospital.

After eight weeks of initial treatment, the response was going well. So, she continued to receive treatment every two weeks in Toronto for the next six months before she was able to ring the bell in 2015.

Ten years later, she’s cancer-free but still follows recommendations to wear a wide-brimmed hat and sunscreen when outdoors.

“It’s not a little skin cancer on the surface of your skin. It is deep and it can get into your lymph nodes and into your bloodstream and it can move,” she said.

She, along with her son Christopher, have organized walks for melanoma awareness in North Bay. She said she’s happy knowing others are getting screened.

Piekarski plans to even go to the Mole Mobile with her daughter for a quick followup.

“I think it’s super important,” she said.

During Melanoma Canada’s last Mole Mobile tour in Ontario, more than 2,200 people were screened at 30 stops. Among them, dermatologists identified 56 potential melanomas, 148 suspected basal cell carcinomas and 36 possible cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas.

The Mole Mobile will be set up Friday at Sunset Park (across from Perreault’s Prime Time Ice Fishing) from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in North Bay.

On Saturday, it will be in Sudbury at Bell Park, in the York Street South Parking Lot, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. On Sunday, it will be in Parry Sound at Canadian Tire, 30 Pine Dr., from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

No appointment is needed and the free skin check will be performed by a certified dermatologist.