Monday is a day when many medical professionals raise awareness about the most deadly form of skin cancer -- melanoma.
It is one of the few cancers we can see with our own eyes, but too many people are still waiting too long to get suspicious spots checked out.
Often, patients aren’t aware that they have to keep track of their moles to start with, but some of us are genetically blessed, and we have zero moles. Some of us are genetically and have inherited a lot of molds to start with the moles themselves, but over time there are risk factors.
Ultraviolet light can change the genetic makeup of our skin lesions, making them prone to developing skin cancer later on.
The three most common skin cancers are basal cell skin cancer, squamous cell skin cancer, and melanoma. So if one isn’t aware of the risk factors for developing those skin cancers, then it’s hard for one to prevent it from happening.
Below is a breakdown of the three skin cancers from the American Cancer Society:
- Squamous cells: These are flat cells in the upper (outer) part of the epidermis, which are constantly shed as new ones form.
- Basal cells: These cells are in the lower part of the epidermis, called the basal cell layer. These cells constantly divide to form new cells to replace the squamous cells that wear off the skin’s surface. As these cells move up in the epidermis, they get flatter, eventually becoming squamous cells.
- Melanocytes: These are the cells that can become melanoma. They normally make a brown pigment called melanin, which gives the skin its tan or brown color. Melanin protects the deeper layers of the skin from some of the harmful effects of the sun.
Read: With summer coming, how concerned should you be about melanoma?
It’s easiest to remember the changes of melanoma. So doctors want to be aware of any changes in your mole so they can try to educate patients. Half the battle is the education part because people aren’t aware that they’re supposed to watch their moles and report any changes they see early.
Statistics have shown that the skin cancers detected by clinicians, especially for melanoma, tend to be detected at an earlier stage versus to be detected later. Another thing that might hold patients back from being detected early could be their access to health care resources, be it insurance plans that require referrals or having no insurance whatsoever, and not having access to a primary care physician that can catch the lesion for them to be a big hindrance.
The other thing is cultural background. Sometimes patients who don’t tend to get sunburned don’t feel the need to get checked out. Data suggests that darker skin types develop melanomas and tend to be on the palms and soles. They tend to sometimes progress faster, be more aggressive too.
Melanoma that is detected early has a five-year survival rate. But once it has escaped the skin, the survival rate drops down pretty quickly from 30% to 60%. In the last few years, there have been so many breakthrough advances found in the treatment of advanced melanoma. So its survival rate is looking better and better every time that there’s new data pushed out. But to compare the 99% rate to 30% to 60%, it’s a no-brainer to try to catch these lesions as early as possible because they can have detrimental results for those melanomas that are final.
So rule No. 1 is do not go into a tanning bed. A good chunk of people understands that already. There’s a lot of progress made in terms of getting parental consent for these tanning bed places now that used not to be the case.
Also, wearing protective clothing and sunscreen helps. The higher the number on the sunscreen, the better.
The American Academy of Dermatology Association has gathered a list of free skin cancer screenings. To find a screening near you, click here.