Skin Cancer Caused By Sun

Skin cancer caused by sun - Melanoma is a form of malignant tumor (= cancer) of the skin. Not to be confused with the benign naevus or skin spot. There are different forms of skin cancer. 5% of this is caused by melanoma; 66% of death cases in skin cancer, however, is due to melanoma.

Melanoma or this form of skin cancer can only be cured if the diagnosis is made in time. Four out of ten people, however, offer themselves too late to the doctor and die within five years of the diagnosis.

Cause increase in number of melanoma cases

The increase in the number of melanoma cases is due to more and more exposure to the sun. This fashion took effect after World War II when a brown skin suddenly became synonymous with beauty and health. 90% of melanoma cases are due to the sun!

What is dangerous is that it is exposed to the sun irregularly, as holidaymakers do when they visit the sun for fourteen days or a month a year. You should therefore be particularly careful if you have sensitive skin, if your skin has many moles and / or if there are cases of malignant skin tumors in your family.



How can you detect a melanoma?

Melanoma often evolves for months or even years before the diagnosis is made. The earlier the detection takes place, the faster the treatment and the more chance you have of recovery.
So pay particular attention to the following signs:

• Asymmetrical: if you share the melanoma imaginary in two, those halves are rarely identical.
• Border: borders are usually erratic, like borders on a geography map.
• Color: the color is also irregular. Often there are dark brown and lighter zones in a melanoma.
• Diameter: the diameter is usually more than 0.5 cm. A melanoma usually looks different from other spots on the skin.
• Evolution: a melanoma changes slowly while other spots remain practically the same.

If one of your beauty spots shows one or more of these properties, if you feel itching or if the stain starts bleeding quickly, consult your doctor.

Melanoma treatment

In doubtful cases, you can always have a spot or a nodule preventively removed.

Caution! A treated melanoma can return and cause metastases. Consequently, a strict post-treatment is indispensable. In addition, protection of the skin against UV rays is recommended. When the removed stain turns out to be a malignant melanoma, part of the surrounding skin should also be removed.

When the melanoma has had time to develop, the condition is more serious. Cancer cells can then have separated from the melanoma and started to proliferate in other organs: these are the metastases.

Melanoma tends to form metastases in the glands that are located in the vicinity of where the cancer has settled. If metastases can be felt in the glands, complete removal of the glands in that area should be performed (usually in the groin or in the armpit, sometimes in the neck).

Melanomas that arise independently

• Approximately 70% of these melanomas occur in the form of dark brown, black or lighter rough spots on the surface of the skin. They stick slightly above the skin, have an indeterminate shape and increase in surface within a period of two to four years.
• A melanoma can also occur very suddenly in the form of a lump (20%). Such a nodule can grow quickly, especially in depth and, moreover, ulcers and bleeding.
• There is a kind of melanoma that affects hands or feet (about 5%). This mainly concerns the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, the skin along the nails or under the nails. This melanoma expands both in width and in depth.
• The eye melanoma (especially on the retina and less often on the iris) and the melanoma of the conjunctiva or eyelid.

*Image source : Wikimedia Commons

References :

1. National Cancer Institute
2. Preventievegezondheidszorg.com
3. American Cancer Society