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New Website Dedicated to Providing Individuals with Vital Knowledge and Tools to Protect Their Skin and Lead Healthy Lives

CONTACT: Samantha Guild
President, AIM at Skin Cancer
(p) 916/206-6100
(e) Info@AIMatSkinCancer.org

(January 25, 2024) After two decades of providing comprehensive and accurate resources to the melanoma community, AIM at Melanoma has launched a new website called AIM at Skin Cancer. This new website will provide the same depth and breadth of resources and information to those battling nonmelanoma skin cancer.

“AIM at Skin Cancer is an extremely valuable resource for all nonmelanoma skin cancer patients and their families looking for information about the disease,” said Soo Park, M.D., UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, a board-certified medical oncologist who specializes in treating people with skin cancers, such as basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell skin cancer, and Merkel cell carcinoma.

Many worthy websites and organizations devoted to skin cancer rightly focus on the prevention and early detection of this disease because it is such a preventable cancer. But AIM at Skin Cancer is the first site and organization to cover the full spectrum of the disease, spanning the complete range of topics—prevention, diagnosis, staging, treatment options, side effect management, caregiving, and so much more.

Critical sections of the website include those on treatment options and side effects of those treatments. The recent emergence of systemic therapies to manage the more advanced cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer creates educational needs and opportunities that AIM at Skin Cancer will continue to fulfill and support.

Several pages are dedicated to caregivers and how they can best support the patient in their lives. Another important part of the site is the image library, which offers over 50 pictures of basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell skin cancer, as well as other types of skin cancer, so that people can see the variety of presentations of these diseases on skin. An entire section is devoted to skin cancer in people of color, and that section includes images of skin cancer in skin of color, which can appear differently than on lighter-colored skin.

AIM at Skin Cancer also offers six symposiums per year, all live-streamed so anyone, anywhere can learn about the latest in treatment and survivorship from leaders in the skin cancer field. The videos of these symposiums are then posted on our website, along with webinars and other informative videos on timely skin cancer topics.

“Ask a Skin Cancer Nurse” is one of the most important resources offered by AIM at Skin Cancer. This service is a free and confidential way to ask questions of a nurse who has been treating skin cancer for 30 years. The website also offers a database of skin cancer specialists—dermatologists and skin cancer oncologists—so that patients and their families can find the closest experts who treat skin cancer.

Because of the recognition that skin cancer is a global disease, AIM at Skin Cancer works with several international partners who use our translated and acculturated materials in their home countries/regions, and these materials are also available on the AIM at Skin Cancer website for use by anyone across the globe.

“We are so pleased to offer these resources to patients with nonmelanoma skin cancer,” saidSamantha Guild, president of both AIM at Skin Cancer and AIM at Melanoma. “For years, we have been asked to provide resources for the nonmelanoma community like those we provide for the melanoma community. We’re excited about this launch and its meaning for nonmelanoma skin cancer patients and their families.”

AIM At Skin Cancer was founded by the leaders of AIM At Melanoma after receiving numerous requests for information and resources for nonmelanoma skin cancers. Over the years, patients, families, caregivers, and physicians have approached them, seeking similar support to what AIM At Melanoma provides for the melanoma community. In response to this demand, AIM at Skin Cancer was created. Like its counterpart, AIM At Skin Cancer aims to expand and enhance its website and resources yearly. This commitment reflects AIM’s dedication to providing comprehensive information and support to individuals affected by nonmelanoma skin cancers.

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About AIM at Skin Cancer and AIM at Melanoma
From its modest roots operating out of the living room of its founder, Valerie Guild, after she lost her 26 year old daughter to melanoma, AIM at Melanoma has grown to be a global foundation whose work focuses on three critical areas: innovative and collaborative research; legislation, policy, and advocacy; and education. AIM at Skin Cancer, an entity of AIM at Melanoma, had its genesis in Valerie Guild’s same initial belief: patients, their caregivers, and their families need comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date information on their disease and treatment options in order to be active participants in treatment and care. By educating patients, healthcare professionals, and the public and by advocating for survivors and their families, AIM at Skin Cancer’s mission is to reduce the incidence of skin cancer and improve the lives of those it affects. AIM at Skin Cancer provides education, connection to resources and opportunities for meaningful engagement to help patients and caregivers/families better face the challenges of their disease.

About Skin Cancer
Worldwide and in the U.S., skin cancer is the most common type of cancer. In fact, more people are diagnosed with skin cancer every year in the U.S. than all other cancers combined. The most recent data indicates that there were 6.35 million people treated for nonmelanoma skin cancer around the globe in 2019. This number is an estimate—at least for the portion of people treated in the U.S., because the U.S. does not track nonmelanoma skin cancer numbers in a database, as we do for other cancers such as melanoma and breast cancer. Earlier data from 2012 indicates more than 5.4 million cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer were treated in 3.3 million people in the U.S. in 2012, but again this number is an estimate, and it is over ten years old. Skin cancer kills thousands of people each year—more than 7000 each year for melanoma and an estimated 7000 more for squamous cell skin cancer—and disfigures millions.

About Melanoma
Melanoma is one of the fastest-growing cancers in the United States and worldwide. It’s one of the most complex forms of cancer and has the most mutations of all solid cancers. In the U.S., melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in both men and women. Incidence rates are higher in women than in men before the age of 50, but by age 65, rates in men double those in women, and by age 80 they are triple.