Burn, Baby, Learn
Sunburn season is upon us, with cancer to followMelanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer, caused by unrepaired damage to DNA in skin cells from ultraviolet radiation. It is often the latent result of long-forgotten childhood sunburns.
The American Cancer Society estimates there are more than 135,000 new cases of melanoma in the U.S. each year. Recognized and treated early, the disease is almost always curable. Later on, it’s much harder: almost 10,000 Americans die from melanoma annually.
Spotting melanoma isn’t hard. Here are the ABCDEs:
- Asymmetry: Look for moles that are irregularly shaped.
- Border: A benign mole has smooth, even borders; a cancerous mole has edges that may be notched or scalloped.
- Color: Benign moles are all one color, usually a shade of brown. Malignant moles are variegated, sometimes red, white or blue.
- Diameter: Malignant moles tend to be the size of pencil eraser or larger in diameter, though they can be much smaller if detected early.
- Evolving: Cancer is all about constant growth and change, and a malignant mole changes over time – in size, shape, elevation and other traits, such as starting to itch or crust.
The high-powered microscopic image above, by Norman Barker at The Johns Hopkins University and Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center depicts stained melanoma tissue. The large round structure in the center of the image is a cross-section of a hair follicle that is surrounded by the melanoma cells (brown).
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