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by Clare La Plante
Early detection of skin cancer by massage therapists can save lives.
In May 2003 Annie Powell, then 26, was in her last semester at the Connecticut Center for Massage Therapy. It was during her externship work with one of her instructors, Scott Raymond, that she had a massage that may have saved her life.
It was during an instructor-student massage in the peaceful ambience of Raymond’s Market Square Wellness Center in Newington, Connecticut, that Raymond noticed Powell had a mole on her back that didn’t look quite right. He waited until the massage was through and then gently asked Powell if she knew about this unusual looking mole. “Do you want me to take a picture of it with your cell phone?” he asked her. Powell was familiar with skin cancer—she had had two spots of skin removed several years earlier that were diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma, the most common and benign form of skin cancer. However, she was unaware of this hard-to-see mole, which, as she saw in the photo on her phone, had irregular borders. This may signal melanoma—the most virulent form of skin cancer.
He waited until the massage was through and then gently asked Powell if she knew about this unusual looking mole. “Do you want me to take a picture of it with your cell phone?” he asked her.
Powell was familiar with skin cancer—she had had two spots of skin removed several years earlier that were diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma, the most common and benign form of skin cancer.
However, she was unaware of this hard-to-see mole, which, as she saw in the photo on her phone, had irregular borders. This may signal melanoma—the most virulent form of skin cancer.
She agreed when Raymond suggested she see a dermatologist to get it checked out. She was scared, but felt calmed by Raymond’s tactful and supportive manner.
“When he approached me about [the mole], I felt there was something wrong, but the way he did it me made me feel confident that everything would be all right,” she says. And it was. Although the dermatologist she saw diagnosed stage-one melanoma, about to progress to the next stage, “my doctor said that it was caught just in time,” she says.
Over the past four years, Powell’s had 10 more malignant tumors removed. She’s considered in remission, but not cured—she’s permanent “melanoma patient.” Her doctor scans her skin every two to three months.
Today, Powell has expanded her massage business (she has her own practice in Connecticut in summers and works for a day spa in New Smyrna, Florida, in the winters) to include a new nonprofit organization, Massage Across America, which is designed to educate other massage therapists on skin cancer.
She figures it’s a gateway to early detection for thou-sands of Americans, one in five of whom will be diagnosed with skin cancer in his or her lifetime, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
“I strongly recommend that other therapists become well-versed in approaching clients with abnormalities,” she says, “and to become very confident and educated on the subject, so they don’t feel nervous—or that what they’re doing is inappropriate.”
On the contrary, says Hinsdale, Illinois-based dermatologist Christina Steil, MD. “Massage therapists can play a really important role [in detection],” she says. “They are often one of only a few people who are looking objectively at people with their clothes off. And skin cancer is such a visual thing.”
Coyle S. Connolly, DO, a Linwood, New Jersey-based osteopath and board certified dermatologist, says that the rapport that many people have with their massage therapists is a tremendous asset.
“Patients often have apprehension about showing their bodies,” he says. They often, however, trust their massage therapists, who then can play a key role.
“The more access we have to the skin—the largest organ of the body—the better chance of detecting skin cancer,” he says. “And early detection is essential.”
He himself has had patients referred by their massage therapists. “These are people I might otherwise not have seen,” he says. “I have been able to remove melanomas at the earliest stages, where you can save a life.”
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American Massage Therapy Association®
