Awareness of Skin Cancer
The number of skin cancer cases has doubled in the last 20 years and there are over 73,000 new cases of skin cancer reported each year in the UK, of which 8,000 are malignant melanoma.
There are three main types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma , and malignant melanoma. Malignant melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer because the cancer can spread to other organs in the body (metastasis). Melanoma skin cancer is usually pigmented or coloured and is more dangerous. Many moles aren’t cancerous, but it’s vital to keep an eye on them.
A range of treatment options have proved successful in treating skin cancer. But about 1,800 people still die from malignant melanoma skin cancer annually. Treatment may include surgical removal, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or biological therapy, depending on the type of skin cancer. When skin cancer is found early it is much easier to treat. If diagnosed late, treatment is not usually able to cure the cancer.
Over exposure to the sun and getting sunburnt in childhood and teenage years increases the risk of developing skin cancer in later life. Malignant melanoma affects women more than men and is more common in people who work indoors rather than outdoors. Non-melanoma affects men more than women and older people, as well as those who have spent a lot of time working outdoors.
Dark skinned people rarely get skin cancer, although they should be careful as well. The people most at risk of skin cancer are those with fair skin, freckles, who burn red in the sun and who spend too much time in the sun without protection. Some inherited skin diseases make those people much more likely to get skin cancer.
Since there are similarities between regular skin conditions and skin cancer you may not be able to tell the difference purely by examination and therefore may require a biopsy. If it’s cancerous it’ll be removed by radiotherapy or surgery.
UVB is known to cause sunburn and skin cancer, so sun creams were originally designed to block out only the UVB. We now know that UVA can also cause skin cancer and, these days, some sun creams block out a lot of UVA as well as UVB.
As sun creams prevent burning, people think that they are protected from skin cancer but that just isn’t true and the increase in the number of skin cancer cases bears witness to this. Sun creams reduce the effect of the sun’s rays but this is counteracted by people staying out in the sun for much longer periods of time, thereby nullifying the initial protection benefits.
