Join the 'Skin Cancer' group to help and get support from people like you. How it works
Only 1 in 4 Young Teens Uses Sunscreen Regularly, Study Finds
Posted 23 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com
MONDAY, Jan. 23 – Despite the fact that sunburn in childhood greatly raises a person's lifelong risk for skin cancer, just 25 percent of 14-year-olds in a new U.S. study said they used sunscreen regularly. What's more, behaviors linked to risky sun exposure increased as kids got older, with older teens reporting more time in the sun and less use of sunscreen than when they were young. In the study, published in the February issue of Pediatrics, researchers led by Dr. Stephen Dusza of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City, examined data on 360 fifth graders in Massachusetts who were surveyed in 2004 and again three years later in 2007. Looking at changes in sun-protective behaviors over that period of time, the team found that more than half (53 percent) of the youngsters had already suffered at least one sunburn by the age of 11 and that that rate of sunburn remained ... Read more
Related support groups: Sunburn, Skin Cancer, Sunscreen, Coppertone
Melanoma Drug's Link to Other Skin Cancers Identified
Posted 18 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 18 – The recently approved drug vemurafenib (Zelboraf) has been hailed as a breakthrough in the treatment of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. But roughly one-quarter of patients who take the medication develop a troublesome side effect: secondary skin cancers called squamous cell carcinomas. Now, a new study by researchers at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues identifies the specific genetic mechanism that causes this side effect. "What we found is that vemurafenib blocks the mutation that makes the melanoma grow, but when patients have skin cells with another mutation that's probably induced from sun exposure, there the drug has the exact opposite effect and causes these squamous cell cancers to grow," said Dr. Antoni Ribas, co-senior author of the study and an associate professor of ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer, Melanoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Zelboraf, Vemurafenib
Drop in Melanoma Deaths Limited to Educated Whites: Study
Posted 16 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com
MONDAY, Jan. 16 – Recent declines in death rates due to the skin cancer melanoma among white Americans appear to be limited to those with higher levels of education, researchers have found. The findings reveal a widening education-related disparity in melanoma death rates and highlight the need for early-detection strategies to effectively target high-risk, low-educated whites, the American Cancer Society researchers said. The investigators noted that overall melanoma death rates among white men and women aged 25 to 64 in the United States have been declining since the early 1990s, but it hasn't been known if death rates among whites might vary depending on a person's socioeconomic status, a term used to describe their levels of income and education. To examine the issue, the researchers reviewed death certificates from 26 states and found that melanoma deaths declined about 10 percent ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer, Melanoma
Bottled Tan May Keep Women Out of the Sun
Posted 19 Dec 2011 by Drugs.com
MONDAY, Dec. 19 – Young women who get their tan out of a bottle may spend less time sunbathing or using tanning beds, two riskier behaviors, according to a new study. Using a sunless tanning product is a safe alternative to ultraviolet radiation (UV) exposure, which is linked to skin cancer and premature aging, the researchers said. They found that women who used tanning products most often reduced their overall UV-tanning time. With a bottled tan, "there is no DNA damage," said lead author Dr. Suephy Chen, an associate professor of dermatology at Emory University in Atlanta. "The product adheres to the top layer of the skin that sheds anyway." Although some dermatologists believe promoting pale skin is a better way to reduce the risk of skin cancer, Chen disagrees with that approach. Getting people to stop tanning is really hard, Chen said. "There are a lot of societal pressures, and ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer
Smoking Linked to Skin Cancer in Women
Posted 15 Dec 2011 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Dec. 15 – If you're a woman who smokes and you are looking for another reason to quit, consider this: A new study has found a link between tobacco use and skin cancer. The study found that women who had squamous cell skin cancer were more likely to have smoked than those who were free from the disease. And those who smoked at least 20 years were twice as likely to develop squamous cell skin cancer, a less aggressive form of skin cancer than melanoma. Men who smoked had a modest risk for the two types of non-melanoma skin cancer – basal cell and squamous cell cancer – but the results weren't statistically significant, the study authors noted. "We don't know why," said study lead author Dana Rollison, referring to the difference between women's and men's risk. Both men and women get a lot of exposure to the sun, the main risk factor for skin cancer, she noted. But lung cancer ... Read more
Related support groups: Smoking, Skin Cancer, Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Use Vanity to Reduce Young People's Sun Exposure: Task Force
Posted 9 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 9 – Doctors should appeal to young people's vanity to convince them to reduce their sun exposure, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says in draft recommendations released Wednesday. For example, showing people ages 10 to 24 how too much sun exposure can affect their looks now and later in life can be much more effective than warning them they're at risk for skin cancer years from now, the task force said. "We now have a reasonable level of evidence that we are able to change behavior in teens and young adults with a variety of counseling approaches that were appearance-based," task force Chair Virginia Moyer, a professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, told the Wall Street Journal. Other experts agreed. "Young people are not concerned, for the most part, with their own mortality. The idea of 'cancer' seems miles away and not a consequence of ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer
Daily Coffee May Lower Your Skin Cancer Risk
Posted 24 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com
MONDAY, Oct. 24 – Your morning coffee might do more than jump-start your day. Researchers say that daily caffeine jolt might also reduce your risk of developing a type of skin cancer. Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer, with nearly one million new cases diagnosed each year in the United States. A diet that contains even a small protective factor may have great public health impact, the researchers said. "Our study indicates that coffee consumption may be an important option to help prevent basal cell carcinoma," said lead researcher Fengju Song, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of dermatology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. "The amount of caffeine consumption was inversely associated with risk," Song said, meaning the more coffee consumed, the lower the risk of skin cancer. The study could not prove cause-and-effect, ... Read more
Related support groups: Caffeine, Alert, Skin Cancer, No Doz, NoDoz, Vivarin, Stay Alert, Molie, NoDoz Maximum Strength, Overtime, Stat Awake, Verv, Caffedrine, Wakespan, Lucidex
More Evidence Links Tanning Beds to Higher Skin Cancer Risk
Posted 24 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com
MONDAY, Oct. 24 – Roughly 10 percent of Americans continue to use indoor tanning beds, but new research suggests that doing so increases their risk for three common skin cancers, including basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. In conducting the study, researchers tracked the tanning bed use of more than 73,000 nurses – first during high school and college, and then when the women were between 25 and 35 years of age. The study found that tanning beds increased skin cancer risk over time, with a "dose-response effect." That means the more visits to the tanning salon, the higher the woman's risk for skin cancer. Compared with women who didn't use tanning beds, the risk for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma jumped 15 percent for every four visits to an indoor tanning bed each year. The risk for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, also ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer, Basal Cell Carcinoma, Melanoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Tanning Beds May Be Even Riskier Than Thought
Posted 6 Oct 2011 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Oct. 6 – Indoor tanning beds may be even more likely to cause skin cancer than previously believed. New research published online Oct. 6 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology suggests that the main type of ultraviolet rays used in tanning beds – UVA1 – may penetrate to a deep layer of skin that is most vulnerable to the cancer-causing changes caused by UV rays. The new study comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers banning the use of tanning beds among children under 18. The American Academy of Pediatrics is on record that it supports such a ban. In the study, 12 volunteers were exposed to UVA1 and UVB rays on their buttocks. (One difference in the waves is length: UVB waves are shorter.) The UVA1 was more damaging to the skin's basal layer then the UVB light. The UVA1 induced a type of lesion called thymine dimers on the deeper basal layers of the ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer
Cancer Patients Should Ask Doctors to Use Simple Terms
Posted 28 Sep 2011 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 28 – Cancer patients are often faced with many difficult-to-understand treatment choices that can have serious side effects and even mean the difference between life and death. That's why it's crucial that patients insist doctors use plain language in explaining the options, advised Angela Fagerlin, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and a researcher at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. "People are making life and death decisions that may affect their survival and they need to know what they're getting themselves into. Cancer treatments and tests can be serious. Patients need to know what kind of side effects they might experience as a result of the treatment they undergo," Fagerlin said in a university news release. She and her colleagues outlined a number of tips to help patients get the information they need ... Read more
Related support groups: Cancer, Methotrexate, Provera, Breast Cancer, Lupron, Accutane, Depo-Provera, Prostate Cancer, Femara, Tamoxifen, Arimidex, Lupron Depot, Medroxyprogesterone, Claravis, Gleevec
FDA Approves Zelboraf and Companion Diagnostic Test for Late-Stage Skin Cancer
Posted 17 Aug 2011 by Drugs.com
Second melanoma drug approved this year that improves overall survival August 17, 2011 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Zelboraf (vemurafenib), a drug to treat patients with late-stage (metastatic) or unresectable (cannot be removed by surgery) melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Zelboraf is specifically indicated for the treatment of patients with melanoma whose tumors express a gene mutation called BRAF V600E. The drug has not been studied in patients whose melanoma tests negative for that mutation by an FDA approved diagnostic. Zelboraf is being approved with a first-of-a-kind test called the cobas 4800 BRAF V600 Mutation Test, a companion diagnostic that will help determine if a patient's melanoma cells have the BRAF V600E mutation. The BRAF protein is normally involved in regulating cell growth, but is mutated in about half of the patients with ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer, Melanoma, Melanoma - Metastatic
Flip-Flops, Baseball Caps May Raise Risk of Skin Cancer
Posted 13 Jul 2011 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, July 13 – Wearing flip-flops and baseball caps can increase your risk of skin cancer, an expert warns. "Most skin cancers occur on the parts of the body that are repeatedly exposed to the sun," Dr. Rebecca Tung, director of the dermatology division at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., said in a Loyola news release. "The problem with flip-flops and baseball caps is that they leave the tips of the ears and the tops of the feet dangerously exposed to sun damage. The potential for skin cancers in those areas are real, especially on the tips of the ears," she explained. Before flip-flops and baseball caps became so popular, people generally wore broad-brimmed hats and sneakers or shoes that protected the tips of their ears and the tops of their feet. "But now those areas of the body have very little protection," Tung said. "Combine that with the fact that most ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer, Sunscreen, Coppertone
GPs Lack Accuracy in Spotting Skin Cancers: Study
Posted 16 May 2011 by Drugs.com
MONDAY, May 16 – When general doctors refer patients to a specialist to investigate a suspicious skin lesion, it's more often another lesion that turns out to be cancerous, a new study finds. The findings suggest non-dermatologists might benefit from increased education on skin cancer detection, the study authors said. "We were very surprised to see the very high number of incidentally detected skin cancers," said study author Dr. Daniel G. Federman, a professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. "However, when we thought about it, we were not surprised that having one suspicious lesion may be a marker of an increased rate of skin cancer elsewhere. Medicine has known for quite some time that having one skin cancer is a risk factor for the development of future skin cancers." Using medical records of 400 patients referred by a non-dermatologist to the ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer
Teens Follow Mom's Lead on Tanning Beds
Posted 13 May 2011 by Drugs.com
FRIDAY, May 13 – Many white teen girls and young women in the United States who use indoor tanning beds have mothers who also use tanning beds, a survey finds. Indoor tanners were more than four times more likely to say their mothers use tanning beds than respondents who don't use tanning beds (42 percent vs. 10 percent), according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) online nationwide poll of more than 3,800 white females aged 14 to 22. "Mothers who tan indoors are not only putting themselves at risk for skin cancer, but they also may be putting their daughters at risk," Dr. Ellen S. Marmur, an associate professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, said in an AAD news release. "The survey shows how influential mothers can be on their daughters' behavior, and that is why it's critical for mothers to set a good example by not tanning." The survey also ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer
Too Few Teens Know the Dangers of Tanning Beds: Poll
Posted 10 May 2011 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, May 10 – Many tanning salons in the United States don't warn teens and young women about the skin cancer risks posed by tanning beds, according to a new survey. The American Academy of Dermatology's online poll included more than 3,800 white females aged 14 to 22 from across the country who were asked about their tanning knowledge, attitudes and behavior. The survey found that 43 percent of indoor tanners said they had never been warned about the dangers of tanning beds by tanning salon employees, and 30 percent said they hadn't noticed any warning labels on tanning beds. And the survey revealed some potentially deadly misperceptions about tanning beds. Younger tanning bed users (aged 14 to 17) were twice as likely as older users (aged 18 to 22) to incorrectly believe that tanning beds are safer than the sun (39 percent versus 15 percent), and more than three times as likely ... Read more
Related support groups: Skin Cancer, Basal Cell Carcinoma, Melanoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Melanoma - Metastatic
Ask a Question
You may also be interested in...
Related Condition Support Groups
Melanoma, Basal Cell Carcinoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Cancer