Skin cancer

Skin cancer

Skin cancer most often develops on skin exposed to the sun. But this common form of cancer can also occur on areas of your skin not ordinarily exposed to sunlight. Skin cancers are growths with differing causes and varying degrees of malignancy.

The three most common malignant skin cancers are:

ü  Basal cell carcinoma,

ü  Squamous cell carcinoma,

ü  Melanoma.

Each of which is named after the type of skin cell from which it arises.

The risk of skin cancer can be reduced by limiting or avoiding exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Checking your skin for suspicious changes can help detect skin cancer at its earliest stages. Early detection of skin cancer gives the patient the greatest chance for successful skin cancer treatment.

Symptoms generally are:

·         Any change on skin, especially in the size or color of a mole, growth, or spot, or a new growth (even if it has no color)

·         Scaliness, roughness, oozing, bleeding, or a change in the way an area of skin looks

·         A sore that doesn’t heal

·         A change in sensation, such as itchiness, tenderness, or pain

·         The spread of pigment (color) beyond its border, such as dark coloring that spreads past the edge of a mole or mark

Skin cancer develops primarily on areas of sun-exposed skin, including the scalp, face, lips, ears, neck, chest, arms and hands, and on the legs in women. But it can also form on areas that rarely see the light of day like palms, beneath your fingernails or toenails, and or genital area.

The exact cause of skin cancer is unknown. It appears basal cell skin cancers arise from basaloid cells in the upper layer of the skin. Uncontrolled growth of these cells is regulated by other factors in the skin. When that regulation is lost, skin cancer cells begin to grow into tumors.

In squamous cell skin cancers, the tumors arise from a normal cell in the top layer of the skin, the epidermis. As with basal cell cancers, these cells are prevented from growing wildly by genetically controlled factors. When there is an alteration in the genes that regulate these cells, the control is lost and skin cancers start to grow. In many instances, the genes are altered by sunlight exposure. The sooner a skin cancer is identified and treated, the better your chance of avoiding surgery or, in the case of a serious melanoma or other skin cancer, potential disfigurement or even death.