Since I have Melanoma and get lots of questions asked about what it is, how you get it, and how serious it is, I thought I would enlighten you with some facts about this often-fatal disease in hopes to teach prevention and the importance of early detection!
1. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million cases in two million people are diagnosed annually. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime.
2. Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are the two most common forms of skin cancer, but are rarely deadly. Between 40 and 50 percent of Americans who live to age 65 will have either skin cancer at least once.
3. Melanoma accounts for about five percent of skin cancer cases, but it causes more than 75 percent of skin cancer deaths. The incidence of many common cancers is falling, but the incidence of melanoma continues to rise significantly, at a rate faster than that of any of the seven most common cancers.
4. Approximately 68,720 melanomas will be diagnosed this year, with nearly 8,650 resulting in death. This means that...
5. Melanoma is the fastest growing cancer in the United States and worldwide. The American Cancer Society estimates that the risk of developing invasive melanoma in the United States is 1 in 41 men and 1 in 61 women. Melanoma primarily affects individuals in the prime of life. The mean age for diagnosis of melanoma is 50, while for many other cancers it is 65 to 70 years old.
6. Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25-29 years old and the second most common form of cancer for adolescents and young adults 15-29 years old. Although melanoma is most common in Caucasians, melanoma can strike men and women of all ages, all races and all skin types.
7. If not caught early, melanoma is known to be the most deadly of all skin cancers. Melanoma can be successfully removed and monitored by regular skin screenings in its early stages. However, the disease is deadly in its most advanced stages as few treatment options exist. The median lifespan for patients with advanced melanoma is less than one year.
8. Early detection makes melanoma highly curable, but it is the least screened for cancer. People find their own melanomas more frequently than doctors do and melanoma detection is not a training requirement for most medical disciplines.
9. Melanoma/skin cancer is the most underfunded of all cancers by federal and private agencies.
10. The vast majority of mutations found in melanoma are caused by ultraviolet radiation.
11. One blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence more than doubles a person's chances of developing melanoma later in life. A person's risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had five or more sunburns at any age.
12. Frequent tanners using new high-pressure sunlamps may receive as much as 12 times the annual UVA dose compared to the dose they receive from sun exposure. Nearly 30 million people tan indoors in the U.S. every year; 2.3 million of them are teens.
13. First exposure to tanning beds in youth increases melanoma risk by 75 percent.
14. Melanoma Risk Factors: While other factors-including genetics-undoubtedly contribute to developing melanoma and other skin cancers, the largest factor by far is exposure to ultraviolet rays (UV) from natural or artificial sources, such as sunlight and indoor tanning beds. In fact, approximately 65 percent of melanomas are attributed to UV exposure. The risk factors include:
Fair skin - Melanoma occurs more frequently in people who have fair skin that burns or freckles easily than in people with dark skin. This is because fair skin tones have less protection from damaging UV rays than darker skin tones. Having darkly pigmented skin lowers, but does not eliminate, your risk of melanoma. In darker skinned individuals, melanoma more commonly occurs on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and under the nails. Reggae musician Bob Marley died in 1981 of metastatic melanoma at the age of 36.
Light Hair and Eye Color - The risk for melanoma is also higher for people with blue eyes and, especially, blond or red hair.
Moles - People who have many moles (more than 50) have an increased chance of developing melanoma.
Dysplastic nevi (nevi is the medical term for moles; the singular is nevus) - Abnormal moles (bigger than normal moles, flat or with a section that is flat, several shades of pigment, fuzzy, indistinct edges) are a bit more likely to become cancerous than ordinary moles. A person with a high number of abnormal moles has a higher risk of developing melanoma.
Personal and family history of melanoma - A previous diagnosis of melanoma increases the risk of getting melanoma again. About 5-10 percent of people with a melanoma will develop it again during their lifetime. If one or more members of your immediate family have developed melanoma, then you have a higher risk of developing the disease yourself. This may have to do with a number of things, including a family lifestyle of frequent sun exposure, shared fair skin traits or inherited gene mutations.
Non-melanoma skin cancer - People who have had other kinds of skin cancer are at a higher risk of developing melanoma.
Weakened immune system - People with a weakened immune system-due to certain cancers, drugs given following organ transplants, HIV/AIDS or other autoimmune diseases-are at a greater risk of developing melanoma and other skin cancers.
Severe sunburns, especially while young - Every time you burn your skin, you increase your risk of developing melanoma and other skin cancer. This is especially true of skin burns at a young age. Just one blistering sunburn can double your chances of developing melanoma later in life.
Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, such as sunlight or indoor tanning booths - Exposure to UV radiation is one of the major risk factors for most melanomas. Using tanning beds before age 30 increases your risk of developing melanoma by 75 percent and occasionally using tanning beds can triple your chances.
Age - Although melanoma is most common in men over the age of 50 (more common than colon, prostate, and lung cancer), it is also one of the most common cancers in people under the age of 30. Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25- to 29-years-old and the second most common cancer in adolescents and young adults 15- to 29-years-old.
The bottom line is nobody is IMMUNE to this disease. Prevention and protection is a MUST and early detection is KEY. You should do self-skin checks every month as well as visit your Dermatologist at least ONCE A YEAR. Be proactive about your skin, it is your body's largest organ! And for those of you that have children, be even more DILIGENT about protecting their skin!
Here's TWO important links to educate yourself on self-skin checks, how to prevent and detect melanoma, and the warning signs.
The ABCD's of Melanoma: http://www.melanoma.org/learn-more/melanoma-101/abcds-melanoma
Melanoma Detection and Prevention: http://www.melanoma.org/learn-more/melanoma-101/melanoma-detection-screening
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