Evolution Of Skin Cancer

Skin cancer is the only form of cancer that is rapidly increasing each year in the United States, supported by the fact that "every 20 seconds someone is diagnosed with skin cancer, and one person dies nearly every hour" (Siegel, Victoria, P 117.) Skin cancer is growing and a multitude of people are constantly being diagnosed. It is the nurses' responsibility to inform their patients about skin cancer while they are in for a check up. Nurses spend more time with their patients than doctors' do, therefore they could educate them and look for possible skin lesions. In order to understand the severity of skin cancer, professors must educate nursing students on the causes, treatments and ways to detect and prevent skin cancer.

In the article, Skin Deep by Nina G. Jablonski and George Chaplan, the authors are attempting to explain how the human skin color has evolved to be dark enough to prevent sunlight from destroying folate but light enough to enhance the production of Vitamin D. The changes in skin pigmentation have evolved since the age of Lucy, who is a skeleton of the ancient humans that is about 3.2 million old. Lucy is being used to determine where and why our ancestors began changing in skin pigmentation. The theory according to Peter Wheeler of John Moores University in Liverpool, England is that the skin of humans adapted to fit the needs at that time. His theory is that back then humans had to stay cool and protect themselves from the extreme heat. This was accomplished by the increase in sweat glands on the surface of the body and reducing the amount hair on the body. However, once the hair was lost another issue became important: the issue of protecting the skin from the sun and its detrimental effects.

Skin color has evolved rapidly since the beginning of humanity; in the beginning, everybody had light skin and dark hair. As populations started to lose hair and their sun exposure increased, the African sun threatened people’s stores of folate, as sunlight destroys folate (which is needed for cell DNA replication, especially important for a growing baby). Eventually, this created a preference for darker skin in Africa, and became an important gene in the African gene pool. Darker skin, full of melanin, absorbs less UVB rays, thus protecting a person against losing a lot of folic acid in their body as well as protecting against sunburn. As populations moved North and the sun became less and less effective in converting cholesterol into Vitamin

The skin is the largest organ in the body and it serves as a protective barrier. A waterproof covering that prevents excessive loss or gain of bodily moisture that helps keep out pathogens (agents such as a bacteria or fungus that causes disease), and provides a barrier against invasion by outside organisms. The skin protects underlying issues and organs from abrasion and other injury, and its pigments shield the body from the dangerous ultraviolet rays in sunlight. (The National Skin Care Institute).

Scientists have developed an effective new treatment for advanced skin cancer. They have modified a strain of the herpes virus which causes cold sores which can be injected into tumours to stop and even start to destroy the cancerous cells. In a trial, involving more than 400 patients with aggressive melanoma, one in four patients responded to the treatment known as T-VEC, and 16% were still in remission after six months.

Skin color is one of the many things that have been altered to benefit the human race through natural selection processes. Melanin is the main protector against sunlight so it is easy to assume that in areas with an immense amount of sunlight, which are areas where Homo sapiens originated from, humans would be considerably darker (Parra 2007). This also explains why the early members of the Homo genus were darkly pigmented (Jablonski 2004). Skin color variation contributes to the understanding of human evolution because it is not only an interesting and divergent trait, it also played a role in the survival of

Skin pigmentation is affected by the way that bodies absorb vitamin D from cholesterol. When a person is in the sun a lot, his or her body is exposed to ultraviolet B light; this is known to convert the sunlight into cholesterol, which then converts into vitamin D (Moalem 51). As a result, the amount of sun exposure that one gets can begin to make him or her a darker color; however, they are the ones who have a healthy level of cholesterol in their bodies. Hence, the darker skin is a compromise in order for humans to have a sufficient cholesterol level. Furthermore, a human's folate levels are also related to the skin pigmentation in their bodies. Folate is an integral part that allows the cells to synthesize in preparation for meiosis. Those

Through persistent research of this topic, I have concluded that pigmentation is one of the most common, adaptive traits demonstrated throughout the World today. When examining the differences in skin tones, it is obvious that a large diversity of people had to “adapt” to their environment. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History emphasizes about the difference “races” we see today without direct correlation to the Sun: “there is also a third factor which affects skin color: coastal peoples who eat diets rich in seafood enjoy this alternate source of vitamin D. That means that some Arctic peoples, such as native peoples of Alaska and Canada, can afford to remain dark-skinned even in low UV areas. In the summer, they get high levels

The incidence rates of skin cancers are increasing worldwide. (Fabbrocini et al., 2010). Among these, melanoma is the most serious and dangerous form of skin cancer. (Callister et al., 2011). It develops from skin cells found in the deeper layers of skin called melanocytes. These produce melanin which protects the skin by absorbing harmful ultraviolet radiation. (Anderson et al., 2009). Sun exposure gives off ultraviolet radiation (UV) which increases the risk of developing melanomas. (Callister et al., 2011). New Zealand has the highest overall melanoma incidence rate in the world. (Callister et al., 2011). Many different factors contribute to New Zealand’s high incidence of this cancer. Salmon et al. (2007) suggest that this could be due to environmental and geographical factors such as relatively high levels of UV radiation made worse by ozone depletion. It is important to understand the factors related to the high incidence rate of skin cancer in New Zealand because a greater understanding can lead to better prevention of skin cancers in the future.

Another theory said that dark pigmentation developed to prevent the overproduction of vitamin D. Vitamin d is a nutrient needed in only small amounts of the body. It’s produce by a reaction that occurs in the skin upon exposure to uv rays or ultraviolet B radiation in sunlight. Sadly both were proven wrong. Thus it was thought that the evolution of dark pigmented skin came about as a protective mechanism in populations of people that are moving from environments with low UV rays to high Uv rays. Examples of this is the light to moderately pigmented ancestral North Indians who came to inhabit India and east Asians who populated South America.The color pigment skin depends on the amount of sunlight thus UV rays. Lighter skin pigment depends on the population in high latitudes,populations groups dispersing in these areas would receive less UV exposure thus allowing them to have lighter pigment. Dark pigment would prevent the production of sufficient levels of vitamin D, which is necessary for calcium absorption and healthy bone growth. Its deficiency has implicated diabetes , autoimmune diseases and viral bacteria

Direct sunlight is the main source of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, part of the magnetic spectrum that reaches the earth from the sun. Due to its shorter wavelengths, it is invisible to the naked eyes. Depending on the wavelengths, ultraviolet radiation is classified as UVA, UVB, or UVC. The ozone layer protected the earth by absorbing most UVC, however, both UVA and UVB can penetrate the atmosphere and play important conditions such as premature skin aging, eye damage, and skin cancer (Epstein & Wang, 2013). In addition to damaging skins, direct sunlight can be deadly to drivers due to glare and make it harder for drivers to see the road. Lastly, the heat and ultraviolet rays can damage upholstery of the vehicle. Therefore, the use of

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer. There are three main types. Squamous cell and basal cell skin cancer are the most common. Melanoma skin cancer is the most dangerous type.

A Theory of the Cause of Skin Cancer This theory of cancer was presented in detail in the book One Answer to Cancer by Dr William Kelley, although certain adaptations have been made. You would be well served to look at the original book available for free on the internet. According to the theory, a person cannot have cancer unless three factors are present. These three factors are: (I)

One aspect of phenotypic variation that fascinates me is the idea that our skin pigmentation have evolved and adapted to the environmental factors that may harm us such as the ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. Growing up in Malaysia I have always noticed that many of us had dark skin but I was never bothered enough to come up with answers to why we are the way we are. When I moved away from Malaysia at the age of nine, I realized that people from different parts of the world had varying skin tones. Some people had pale skin while others were black and there was a range of skin tones in between. As a result of me being young and naive, I tend to associate skin tones to where they came from. This meant that I would associate individuals with white skin as being European and people with dark or black skin as being from Africa.

Skin cancers have become increasingly prevalent over the last 30 years, with 87,000 new melanoma diagnoses per year in the United States (American Cancer Association, 2016). With regards to skin melanoma, medical professionals struggle most with the diagnosis rather than the treatment (Ferris et al., 2017). Therefore, it is important for the medical community to focus on diagnosis- related struggles.