What’s Going Around | May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month
WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Sunshine may be good for the soul, but too much of it may not be good for our skin. As the weather gets nicer, a lot of us will be spending more time outside in the sunshine — which means a higher risk for skin cancer.
According to the CDC, skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States. This May, which is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, healthcare providers are bringing attention to this disease.
“There are different types of skin cancer. Let’s be clear. The most deadly is melanoma. The other two are squamous cell and basal cell cancers. Those usually appear as fleshy looking nodules. Pearl colored, pink oftentimes. But the melanoma is the one that people get most concerned about. It’s usually a darker pigment, but it can be variations of black, brown, clear or even blue,” said Dr. John Zapas, general surgeon at Frederick Health.
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Prevention is the most important aspect of managing skin cancer. Dr. Zapas said staying out of the sun is the main way to prevent getting it — and if you can’t avoid the sun, wear protective clothing and or sunscreen.
“I would recommend anything with an SPF rating over 30. Thirty is adequate as long as you reapply it every hour, every hour,” Dr. Zapas said.
He said there are a lot of wives tales when it comes to how to treat sunburns, such as applying ice.
“None of those things work and it can actually be dangerous. Sunburn is actually an injury to the underlying layer of living cells in your skin. And there are different degrees of sunburn. The most mild is a first-degree burn, which can just be treated symptomatically with moisturizers and pain relief, like ibuprofen or aspirin. Anything deeper than that may cause blistering or loss of a layer of skin and that’s probably best treated by a professional,” said Dr. Zapas.
Most skin cancers are a result of blistering sunburns as a child, according to Dr. Zapas. “That’s why prevention efforts are really focused on the younger generation and on younger individuals. The DNA damage is what we think leads to this disordered function of cells and can present itself 50, 60, 70 years later. Most people that have skin cancer have had at least one blistering sunburn as a child,” he said.
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