An introduction to Skin cancer

An introduction to Skin cancer

One of the most common cancers in the world today is skin cancers, or more accurately, there are three forms of cancer of the skin, as there are 3 main types of skin cancer.

The most common, and least dangerous is a so called rodent ulcer, or basal cell carcinoma, followed by the skin cancer called Squamous cell carcinoma and finally we have what I would consider to be the most well known form of skin cancer, which while it is the most lethal is also the rarest; malignant melanoma.

Although malignant melanoma is the rarest, because it is the deadliest, it is worth having a quick look at what it is. This cancer that is responsible for about 1 per cent of cancers is a tumor in the cells that create melanin, the melancytes. In case you wanted to know, melanin is the pigment that gives you your sun tan, and gives your skin the color it has normally. It is also responsible for the color of your eyes and your hair, which means that malignant melanoma, can also affect the eyes and not just the skin.

It is comforting to know that at least for now, skin melanomas are very uncommon in children, but because half of all the sun exposure the skin gets happens before the age of 18, and the time it needs to develop, it is critical to prevent your children from getting sunburns.

With growing pollution, diminishing ozone layer and more knowledge of what UV rays can actually do, there is a growing realization that sun exposure can be very bad for us and that we need to protect ourselves from these ultra violet lights. It is very clear that it is the sun that is causing the problems as the number of people with skin cancer varies depending on country, the tropical countries with large Caucasian populations having the highest incidents of skin cancer. Countries like Australia, South Africa and southern American states with a lot of sunshine and Caucasian population have skin cancer incidences that are directly proportionate with the amount of sunlight and size of the Caucasian population.

Darker skin types like those of us with an African American or Asian background get better protection against the sunlight because of their darker skin coloring.

Ultra violet light is part of the sunshine and it is that light that is causing the problem. UV light come in different types, but they are all essentially bad for pale skin, and particularly babies and children are very much at risk because they have thinner skin than adults.

The instances of skin cancer have doubled every 10 years for the last 40 years. This ties in with when cheap vacations to sunnier climates were introduced and now that they are more widely available and sunbathing is such a popular past time, skin cancer instances are set to continue this rise unless people begin to take the necessary precautions to prevent getting burnt by the hot ultra violet rays from the sun.

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