Specialist general practitioner, Dr Adishwer Tapryal, who runs the Skin Stop: Skin Cancer Clinic, has even had to drop his duties as a GP and focus solely on the clinic due to demand.

Skin cancer has become a huge issue right across Australia with two thirds of fair-skinned Australians expected to develop the disease in their lifetime.

But despite the immense prevalence of the cancer, Dr Tapryal said there was very little training, funding or awareness surrounding it.

Joined by Dr Douglas Duthie, who has been the NT’s main skin cancer doctor for two decades, and Sushma Garbuja, the practice clinical nurse manager and main clinic nurse for skin cancer and vasectomy, Dr Tapryal spoke about the alarming situation unravelling in the Territory.

People have been diagnosed at the clinic with 50 skin cancers in one sitting

The skin cancer clinic in Palmerston is perhaps the only facility that focuses solely on the particular cancer in the NT.

Staff are specially trained to diagnose, manage, treat and carry out surgery related to skin cancer.

As a result, Dr Tapryal, who joined the clinic three years ago, and Dr Duthie said they managed a lot of complex cases.

“It’s not just the seriousness that can be a problem,” said Dr Duthie.

“People can turn up with 50 skin cancers on one presentation.

“Certainly 20 is not unusual.”

While it is more present in older patients, staff said skin cancer could develop in people of all ages.

The youngest patient Dr Tapryal treated recently was a 21-year-old who only found an invasive melanoma when straightening her hair.

“It still took her two months to find the right help,” he said.

“She’s fine now but if it was at the back of her head, for example, things would have gone very differently.”

The types of skin cancers

The most well-known type of skin cancer is melanoma.

Known for its silent nature due to its low number of symptoms, melanoma is the third most common type of cancer in Australia.

It can usually only be detected through a skin test and most commonly develops due to overexposure to the sun.

“The reason why it’s troublesome is because it is very silent,” said Dr Tapryal.

“They don’t present with a lot of symptoms, and the risk is by the time you really see something odd, chances are it’s already started to spread.”

But he added it was not the only type of skin cancer.

Squamous cell cancer (SCC) and basal cell cancer (BCC) are two other types and combined, outnumber melanomas.

They also come with “significant morbidity and mortality” and spread quickly.

Between April 2008 to March 2013, the Northern Territory had the highest number of new cases of melanoma in the Australia with 89 cases per 100,000.

Four years before, the Territory had the lowest rates in the country.

The NT also had the second highest rates of non-melanoma skin cancer at 592 cases per 100,000.

This is not helped by “lack of real input” from governments across Australia.

“The last message that was spread was ‘slip, slop, slap’ and that was a few decades ago,” added Dr Tapryal.

“What came after? Nothing.

“Where’s the knowledge, where’s the incentive? Why should people come in?

“And that’s what we see. By the time people have reached out to us, things have sometimes progressed.”

Skin checks are the only way to diagnose skin cancer early

In the Northern Territory where there is a lack of funding for professionals such as GPs to train to better recognise skin cancers, a need for more specialised clinics and a lot of outdoor work and leisure activities, it has become a “nasty” problem.

To help prevent mobility issues or lives lost, staff say early detection is key.

The only way to do this, is to get a skin check from trained professionals.

“Five per cent of melanomas have little colour and three per cent have no colour and they are the hardest for us to diagnose and impossible for the skin owner,” Dr Duthie said.

”In other words, skin cancers, living tissue, never obeys the rules.”

Dr Tapryal said skin cancer was very hard to spot with the naked eye.

“We see it at 10 times the magnification which means if there’s any changes, we will catch it much sooner than you seeing that,” he said.

“I’ve had a lot of people in their 70s and 80s present for their first ever skin check and have two or three melanomas sitting on them.

“There’s lack of public knowledge about it.

“People have no idea what skin cancers are, what to watch out for, and how fatal that they can be.”

Get treatment early

Despite the size of the problem, once a skin cancer has been identified, Dr Tapryal said there were different treatments available that did not always involve surgery.

If it is caught early, a mole can be frozen through cryotherapy or might be able to be treated using creams.

If surgery is required, a lot of the time it can be carried out at the clinic under local anaesthetic with no waiting times, at a “10th of the cost” of a specialist and with follow-up care.

To catch it early, Dr Duthie and Dr Tapryal encouraged Territorians over the age of 18 years old, to book a skin check.

“Show up for a skin check every year,” Dr Tapryal added.

“Don’t just trust your eyes or the internet.

“It is a real problem, and it can turn into something very serious, but it is easily preventable.”

Palmerston GP Super Clinic is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 6pm and open Saturday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm.

To book an appointment or find out more, visit the website.