Introduction

Skin cancer prevention includes avoiding sun and other causes of skin cancer, protection against these causes, regular self-examination, and checking suspicious skin changes by a dermatologist.

Avoiding Causes of Skin Cancer

Avoiding Sun

• Avoid direct sun exposure between 10 am and 4 pm, especially in summer, in regions close to equator (± 30 degrees latitude), and in high altitudes.
• Not only long term exposure, but also short non-regular exposures (minutes) to intense sunlight may increase the risk of skin cancer. A person with fair skin may get burns in 15 minutes, so avoid getting burns.

continue reading Skin Cancer Prevention: Avoiding Sun, Self-Examination

Causes of Skin Cancers

The most common cause of skin cancers are ultraviolet (UV) rays, either from the sun, or from UV-emitting lamps like those in tanning saloons. Both UV-A and UV-B rays may cause skin cancer.

Other possible causes of skin cancers include:

• High dose or repeated X-ray exposure (1,2)
• Exposure to arsenic (pesticides, wood preservatives, miners, sheep shearers, farmers) (1), pitch (from distillation of wood or coal tar), creosote, or radium (5)
• Therapy that destroys immune cells – chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunosuppression in organ or bone marrow transplantation (2)
• Smoking increases risk for squamous cell carcinoma (4)

continue reading Skin Cancer – Causes and Risk Factors

General Rules

Treatment of skin cancer depends on cancer type, stage, location, patient’s age, and his/her general health state. It is a dermatologist – a specialist for skin diseases - who treats cancer. Methods of skin cancer treatment include:

1. Surgery
2. Radiotherapy
3. Chemotherapy
4. Medications and other

continue reading Skin Cancer Treatment: Surgery, Radiotherapy, Chemotherapy

Skin Cancer – General Characteristics

Skin cancers are malignant growths on the skin. They mostly arise from the upper layer of the skin – epidermis. Skin cancers may develop anywhere on the skin, including scalp, lips, or under-nail skin.

Skin cancers are most common after 50 years of age, but they may occur at any time.

Any chronic skin growth or discoloration that increases in size with time is suspicious for skin cancer.

Skin Cancer Causes and Risk Factors

Common Types of Skin Cancer

There are three common types of skin cancer:

• Basal cell carcinoma
• Squamous cell carcinoma
• Melanoma

continue reading Types of Skin Cancer – Pictures and Treatment

According to surprising results of a new study, some common moisturizers may quicken the development of skin cancer at least in mice.

However, you need not to throw away your creams and lotions just yet as senior investigator of the study Allan Conney, PhD has said that further research is needed to find its impact on human moisturizer users. The study has been published in Journal of Investigative Dermatology. For some people, moisturizers are medically needed and some animal study doesn’t directly identify the human risk of skin cancer.

Conney, the director of cancer research at the Rutgers University School of Pharmacy, N.J, says that this new study shows there may be a problem with these moisturizers.

The findings of the study

In this study, hairless mice were exposed to ultraviolet light twice a week for 20 weeks that increased their risk of having skin cancer. The researcher applied either water, nothing or one out of four of these different creams known as Dermovan, Dermabase, Vanicream and Eucerin Original Moisturizing Cream on mice’ skin. For an additional 17 weeks, this went on 5 days a week.

continue reading Your moisturizer may carry a cancer risk

Defining skin cancer

Skin cancer is the malicious escalation on the outside stratum of the skin. This is called as the malignant growth in the theory of skin cancer which can be a fatal. The skin tumor is developed in two clusters of people such as spiteful melanomas and non spiteful malignancy tumor.

Skin cancer as a fatal

It has been emerged as one of the cancers among human beings, which caused millions of people to a death. About 1 million people of skin tumor are diagnosed every year in United States.

Kinds of skin cancer

The investigators diagnosed 3 types of skin cancer. These are as following:

• Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC)
• Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC)
• malignant cells (MC).

continue reading How and Why Skin Cancer Spread?

Merkel cell carcinoma

WASHINGTON – People know little about the deadliest form of skin cancer as it is a little-studied type.After his death, Martin Whatley’s classic rock ‘n’ roll guitar proved his last weapon against it.

Whatley’s stricken widow put up Whatley’s perfect 1964 Fender Stratocaster for auction on eBay, donating half the income for Merkel cell carcinoma research and the rest to pay his medical bills.She knew scientists didn’t have sufficient funding to study a killer so uncommon that few doctors identify it and know little how to treat it.

She coiled donating $15,000 last year to the University of Washington — not where her husband was treated, but where Merkel cell authority Dr.Paul Nghiem is making efforts to gather samples of patients’ tumors to classify the genes that fuel the cancer.Merkel cell carcinoma provides a miserable sight of the upsetting intersection of research dollars and the suffering wrought by uncommon diseases.

continue reading Martin Whatley’s guitar proved his last weapon in a long battle against Skin Cancer(A Rare disease that needs research and proper attention)

Prolonged exposure to the ‘Ultra-Violet (UV) Radiations’ could be a major cause for developing skin cancer despite the health advantages of vitamin D. Health experts at the ‘American Academy of Dermatology (AAD)’ accept that vitamin D is essential for optimal health of a person but the risks coupled with the UV-source is far more severe and it requires a cautious approach.

Health experts and dermatologists are of the view that appropriate amount of vitamin D can easily be obtained from natural sources like vitamin D enriched foodstuffs, fortified foods, vitamin-rich beverages, and varieties of multi-vitamin supplements. Any deliberate attempt to get exposed to the ultra-violet radiations would be harmful instead.

The exposure to the ultra-violet radiations could be natural as well as artificial. Sun is the natural source of ultra-violet radiations and various types of man made devices including tanning devices are among the artificial sources of ultra-violet radiations. Both these sources provide good amount of vitamin D to the human body but they are the safer ones, according to the ‘American Academy of Dermatology (AAD)’.

continue reading Be Sun Smart to Avoid Risk of Skin Cancer

When asked what the largest organ in the human body is, many people guess the liver, the brain, the intestines or even the lungs. But the truth is that the largest organ you have is actually your skin. Your skin protects your internal organs from injury, regulates body temperature and contains nerve cells that create the sense of touch.

In order to better understand skin conditions, you should understand the structure of the skin itself. There are three layers that make up the skin, the epidermis, the dermis and the subcutis.

The epidermis is the outer layer of skin and is, itself, made up of three layers; the basal layer, the keritinocytes and the stratum corneum. The stratum corneum is the very outermost layer of skin and is made up of dead cells that have been shed from the underlying keritinocytes and basal layers. The keritinocytes produce what the skin needs to protect the body. The basal layer forms new keritinocytes. The epidermis also contains melanocytes, which produce skin pigment (melanin).

continue reading A Guide to Healthy Skin