Primary care practitioner (PCP)-based skin cancer training and screening are feasible and have the potential to improve PCP diagnostic accuracy without increasing specialty referrals or skin biopsies, according to a recent study. In a pilot interventional study performed at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, patients aged ≥35 years scheduled for an annual health habits screen in the PCP general medicine clinics were studied. Researchers found:

• Among 258 patients offered screening (median age, 70 years; 255 [98.8%] male), 189 (73.3%) received clinical skin evaluation (CSE) and 69 (26.7%) declined.
• A total of 62 of 189 patients (32.8%) were referred to a dermatologist after intervention: 33 (53.2%) for presumptive skin cancers and 15 (24.2%) for precancers.
• 9 out of 50 patients (18.0%) evaluated in a dermatology clinic underwent biopsy to exclude skin cancer.
• Correct diagnoses were made by PCPs in 13 of 38 patients (34.2%; 4 of 27 patients [14.8%] diagnosed with skin cancers and 5 of 11 patients [45.5%] diagnosed with actinic keratoses).