Skin Cancer : The Common Malignancy Essay

Many people think that is it possible to achieve a “healthy tan,” but this thought has been proven wrong. Overexpose to UV-A and UV-B rays from the sun lead to premature aging of the skin, as well as the possible formation of skin cancer, know as melanoma. An appearance of a tan is actually a stage of burning and damage to the skin. Although a tan may be desirable to many, the fact remains that more people need to be educated on the dangers of the sun’s harmful rays, and the possible health complications of overexposure.

I read the article “Kids want to tan” and I can express my reaction using this thesis: “The danger of getting too much tan”. The main ideas that I can find in this article are three: the sun-obsession, the skin cancer, and the percentage and incidence of skin cancer. I’m going to give a summary of this article and I’m going to explain the main ideas adding details related to my knowledge and my experience.

Skin cancer is a disease that can affect any one. Skin cancer includes many types that can be classified as severe or superficial. Consequently, treatement of skin cancer depends on the degree of severity a person has. In the following paper, we will shed lights on the types of skin cancer and its causes. Finally, we will investigate how to treat the different types of cancer and how to avoid it.

These brown coloured cancerous growths develop when unrepaired DNA has committed damage to the body’s skin cells. It is known that it is the most commonly triggered by vigorous amounts of sunshine, over excessive use of tanning bed and UV lights which result in making mutations in the skin that produces the skin cells to over multiply at a quick rate which can eventually form nasty tumours.

Although there are several types of skin cancer, the most aggressive form is melanoma. This cancer of the skin involves mass replication of the pigment producing melanocyte cells, which are located in the epidermis, below the basal layer. There are several factors involved with the onset of melanoma including, exposure to ultraviolet rays, genetic predisposition, numerous nevi (moles), immunosuppression, and environmental exposure to carcinogens.

The National Skin Cancer Awareness Program represents the new public health approach. This is because it has been created to prevent and reduce the incidence of skin cancer among teenagers and young adults. It takes into account the social determinants that influence a person’s health. For example, due to the sun’s very strong UV rays, Australia is a very hot country and

tanning promises and creates a beautiful tan in only a few sessions. The result from this tan is dark and clear skin that makes a person feel and look better. No wonder this craze is so popular. Who wouldn’t want to look like they just came back from the Caribbean with beautiful skin? I mean having tan skin does make a person look better right? This question is obviously a personal opinion, but this new habit of tanning indoors has become a growing concern. There are many long term effects to indoor tanning that are harmful to a person. But most people do not understand this because the short-term effects are the most satisfying.

As many as ninety percent of melanomas are estimated to be caused ultra violet (UV) exposure. This includes UV exposure from artificial sources, such as tanning beds. “Strong evidence now links tanning beds to melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer that afflicts nearly 69,000 Americans a year.”—USA Today. The more one tans and the younger one is your risk for melanoma increases. However, melanoma is increasing faster in women 15-29 years old, than in men the same age. Furthermore, 10,000 people die from melanoma. This is mainly caused because of tanning beds. As a matter of fact, a person dies every fifty minutes from melanoma, the second most common cancer. Tanning beds triple the risk of one getting melanoma. In fact, every time one goes and tans, the risk gets higher and higher. Following this further, more people get melanoma because of tanning beds than developing lung cancer because of

However, this is an argument about the structure of the U.S Healthcare System, rather than causation of skin cancer. Furthermore, Lee stresses that dermatologists use tanning beds to treat patients who suffer from psoriasis, a process referred to as phototherapy, which posed a conflict to my beliefs. This claim did make me question the validity of the link between tanning beds and skin cancer. However, when Lee suggested that dermatologists are monopolizing the tanning industry, he provided evidence that suggested dermatologists have been drastically decreasing their use of phototherapy. As a result, I believe that increased awareness has led most dermatologists to look for new and improved treatments for patients suffering from

The younger the body is, the more fragile it is. According to THE EDITORS, “...the earlier UV damage begins, the more time it has to add up and get worse. People who begin tanning before the age of 35 have a melanoma risk that is at least 60 percent greater than those who start after that age” (par. 5). The facts of how bad it is for the body and how much the risk is for younger people should be more than enough to prevent it. Putting up label warnings and needing parental consent is not sufficient to alert the problems with minors fake tanning. The health of the youth is far more important than skintones (THE EDITORS par. 7-8). More should be done to make teenagers and parents aware of the terrible effects sunless tanning

According to International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (2007) systematic review about sunbeds and melanoma cancer worldwide, “First exposure to sunbeds before 35 years of age significantly increased the risk of melanoma” (1116). Further research strengthens the link between tanning beds and melanoma. Lazovich et al. (2010) studied the diagnosed cases of melanoma in the state of Minnesota between 2004-2007. The age group they studied was 25-59, and asked the study participants about their tanning bed practices (1557). They found out that the odds ratio “for the likelihood of melanoma in relation to having ever tanned indoors was 1.74…Melanoma risk increased markedly with frequency of use” (Lazovich et al., 2010, 1564).

While it is very imperative to begin by protecting small children from the suns damage, efforts to prevent skin cancer must continue on into the teenage years. One of the most popular ways to catch a tan as a teen is by indoor tanning. The Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC) reported that “nearly 1 out of every 3 white high school girl used an indoor tanning device such as a tanning bed, tanning booth, or sun lamp” (“Reducing Indoor Tanning”, n.d.). This significantly increases the risk of skin cancer. This publication, by the DCPC, offers facts on the potential consequences of indoor tanning for minors and ways to lower the use of tanning indoors for minors in the community.

Tanning salons turn their attention toward cancer prevention and turn their backs on causing skin cancer. Lavine wrote, "The JNCI review noted that indoor tanning can increase a fair-skinned individual's risk of developing melanoma by 55%. And it can take a mere 10 indoor-tanning sessions to cause precancerous DNA damage, reports a recent review study by a Kings College London researcher (Lavine)." Melanoma is not the only form of skin cancer. Tanning beds play a role in the formation of other skin cancers as

Even though Simoncini has lost his practicing license and is fighting to get it back. However, dozens of clinics and hospitals that still implement the cancer fight tactics that he used. They way in which Simoncini treats cancer is by bringing the sodium bicarbonate in direct contact with the tumor. A treatment cycle is only six treatment, then 6 days off, this is repeated four times. The side effect of this treatment includes thirst and weakness.

C. Melanoma Skin Cancer is the most dangerous form of skin cancer, it kills one person per hour, these cancerous growths are most often caused by ultraviolet radiation from sunshine or tanning beds. These tumors originate in the pigment-producing melanocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis. Melanoma is caused mainly by intense, occasional UV exposure (frequently leading to sunburn), especially in those who are genetically predisposed to the disease. Often the first sign of melanoma is a change in the size, shape, color or feel of a mole.