The impact of primary and secondary prevention in reducing skin cancer

Skin cancer incidence has increased in recent decades, due to weak monitoring to essential recommendation for prevention by patients, lack of recognition of morphological pre-malignant lesions and inadequate clinical skin examination by primary care physicians. It has been created various strategies including educational campaigns in media and communication to enhance knowledge of this disease. However, skin cancer is still diagnosed in late stages resulting in an increased morbidity and mortality in the short and medium term. This article makes a widespread review, of the rol of primary and secondary prevention, specifically in reducing unnecessary exposure of environmental factors, in which the modification of risk behaviors and early detection of pre-malignant lesions can help to lower the incidence of this disease and secondarily alter the natural course progression avoiding future complications or even death.