Skin Cancer Prevention

It is always best to know the steps for skin cancer prevention as it helps you in stopping cell damage from UV rays.

Skin cancer is the abnormal or malignant growth of cells in the skin tissues. The skin is the largest organ of the body.

The skin cancer is categorized into three major types depending on their origin.

They are the basal cell carcinomasquamous cell carcinoma and the melanoma skin cancer. All these types are common but the former two types are curable to a large extent. The last type is the moist dangerous as it spreads to the other tissues in the body and invades deeper.

Early detection of skin cancer can offer good recovery rate with proper and prompt treatment. Any type of skin cancer can have good prognosis if caught early. Therefore a watchful approach is very important to detect any abnormal or different change in the skin. The skin cancer prevention to a certain extent is very much possible unlike any other cancers.

Steps for Skin Cancer Prevention

The exact cause of any other type of cancers is unknown. Till date is understood that doctors are unable to specify the reason why one person gets cancer the other does not. However certain evidences have made their way to explain the factors which may be the probable reasons behind the cause of cancer. The chances of developing the cancer may increase due to certain things around us and our lifestyle.

The risk factors are very well explained for many of the cancers, these factors are supposed to increase the chances of developing the disease. Counter to these risk factors are the protective factors which decrease the chances of developing the disease.

It is considered that majority of the risk factors can be prevented but few may not. For example smoking is a major risk factor for many of the cancers and can be avoided but the risk factor such as the heredity where the cancer genes may be inherited cannot be avoided. These may form a threat for the people you are at high risk and are unable to avoid the risk.

The option left for Skin cancer prevention is trying to avoid the risk factors and increasing the protective factors that can be controlled so that the chance of developing cancer decreases.

Although many risk factors can be avoided, it is important to keep in mind that avoiding risk factors does not guarantee skin cancer prevention. People with risk factor may or may not get the disease. Merely having the risk factor does not mean necessarily the person will be affected by cancer.

The major risk factor for any type of skin cancer is the exposure to UV rays. Either for Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer (Basal Cell Carcinoma and Squamous Cell Carcinoma) or for Melanoma studies suggested that reducing exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation decreases the incidence of skin cancer thus helping in skin cancer prevention.

This can be done by avoiding sunburns, especially in childhood and adolescence. This will reduce the incidence of melanoma skin cancer to a large extent.

There are various ways to reduce the sun exposure for skin cancer prevention. One of them is changing patterns of outdoor activities to reduce time of exposure to high-intensity UV radiation.

One should keep in mind that sunscreen is not a substitute for avoidance of sun exposure. No evidences are available which prove that sunscreen use reduces the skin cancer development. Those whose skin tans poorly or burns easily on sun exposure are said to be susceptible to any type of skin cancer.