Melanoma International is an independent, plain-language reference about melanoma and sun safety. It is written for patients, families, and anyone who wants to understand these subjects. The aim is to make unfamiliar words and complicated topics easier to read, while keeping the limits of general information clear.
A page here can explain what a medical term means or what a published source describes. It cannot explain a reader's own test result, choose a treatment, or estimate what will happen to an individual. No information is compared with a person's medical record, and no reader's case receives an assessment through this reference.
How to use the pages
The explanations draw on public health agencies, cancer and dermatology societies, and published research. Sources are named in the text, with links beside the claims they support. Research is described as the finding of a particular investigation, with its limits kept in view. A general account of a subject is different from advice about a person's circumstances.
The annotated reading guide explains what the linked sources cover. The glossary gives plain definitions of terms that can appear in reports and letters. The basics page provides a starting point for learning about the disease. Reading can begin wherever a question arises; there is no required order.
Topics involving diagnosis and treatment include a reminder to use your own doctor or care team for individual questions. Some pages include possible questions for a care discussion. They are topics to talk about, not requests for a particular decision or a substitute for the information that a team holds.
Patient advocacy as a subject
Wikipedia's patient advocacy reference describes a field concerned with patients, survivors, and caregivers. It includes education, information, representation, and patient rights among the activities discussed. Explaining that field does not mean that this reference provides those services or represents anyone in their care.
About the name
ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer lists a Pennsylvania nonprofit called the Melanoma International Foundation. A 2012 press release described that organization's annual sun-safety awareness walk. Melanoma International is independent of that organization and of anyone connected with it.
Independence also means that naming an agency, society, publication, or other organization is a way of identifying a source. It does not mean that the organization has written these pages, assessed them for an individual, or agreed with every explanation here. A link leads to that source's own account, with its own purpose and scope.
The distinction matters when reading about health. A useful general explanation can help make a question clearer without resolving it. Information about a personal finding, a possible test, or a treatment discussion belongs with a doctor or care team who can consider the full circumstances.
Independence and limits
Melanoma International is an independent, plain-language reference about melanoma for patients, families and anyone who wants to understand the disease and sun safety. It is not the Melanoma International Foundation, the Pennsylvania nonprofit of a similar name, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by that foundation or anyone connected with it, or by any agency, hospital, society, charity, company or publication named on its pages. It offers no helpline, consultations, report reviews, second opinions, grants, screenings, events or products, and it accepts no donations. Nothing here is medical advice: for questions about your own skin, diagnosis or treatment, talk with a doctor or your care team.