Letter from Dr. Armstrong | Summer 2024

For many of us, summertime means spending a lot of time outdoors. However, time outside means your skin is exposed to the sun. While I want you to have a fun-filled summer, I urge you to make your skin health a priority.

Childhood cancer survivors have a higher risk of developing skin cancer, especially for those who had radiation treatment. The good news is that skin cancer can be prevented. It can also be found in its early stages when it is most treatable.

Skin health is so important that we have dedicated this issue of LTFU Update to it.

• We talked to Alan Geller of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health about the Advancing Survivors’ Knowledge (ASK) About Skin Cancer study where we researched whether sending reminders would increase the number of survivors who do regular skin checks.
• We interviewed Ashfaq Marghoob, MD, a dermatologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York, about how to perform skin checks.
• We talked to Maren, a three-time survivor of skin cancer, about what her experience has taught her about skin health.

As always, we welcome your feedback. Let us know what topics you would like us to focus on in future issues by calling 1-800-775-2167 (8 a.m.–5 p.m. CST) or emailing ltfu@stjude.org.

Greg Armstrong, MD, Principal Investigator