Self‐reported naevus density may lead to misclassification of melanoma risk

Abstract

Cutaneous melanoma incidence continues to rise, imposing a sizable burden on health services and society1 . The strongest known risk factor for melanoma is the presence of many melanocytic naevi2 . Naevus prevalence studies use a variety of counting methods from objective counts by dermatologists or research staff, to self-counts. This diversity likely contributes to the variation seen in prevalence estimates3 . Expert counts are more accurate but are labour-intensive and costly.