Skin cancer, although it appears small can be quite deadly if it's not caught on time. As for how it grows, the cancer develops when DNA is damaged beyond repair. The cells that are damaged then develop and split at a rate that is. Uncontrollable when this damage happens in the skin and the cells grow and separate uncontrollably, the cancer is the result. The damaged cells will continue to multiply and that will cause a tumor.
The cancer generally develops in the epidermis, which is the outermost layer. That is why the skin cancer tumor is generally quite visible. This is why that type of cancer is generally detectable in the early stages.
Sun exposure appears to be the main cause why skin cancer develops. The American Cancer Society has declared that most of the 1 million cases of occurences that are diagnosed every year could be prevented with proper sun ray protection. It's the UV rays from the sun that causes DNA to become damaged.
The body is such an amazing machine that it can generally repair this DNA damage, but there's a time in which that repair may not take place. Cumulative sun exposure can cause this and after lead to skin cancer. This is why a few persons don't develop the condition until thirty or forty years after they've had the extensive sun exposure.
What do the different types of skin cancer look like?
There are different types of the anomalies that a person can acquire. There are actually 3 main types. These three types account for all of the cases of skin cancer. What makes them different is the fact that these 3 cancers begin in different cells. This is how each cancer gets their name; they're named based on the cell that they develop from. It's also important to note that there are 2 classes of skin cancers. The 1st class is nonmelanoma and the 2d is melanoma. Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer.
Here are the 3 different types:
* Basal Cell Carcinoma - This is the most common form of cancer. More than 1 million people in the U.S. develop this form of cancer, which also means around 80% of all skin cancers are of this type.
* Squamous Cell Carcinoma - This type of skin cancer accounts for around 16% of all cases. The cancer begins in the squamous cell, which are the cells that are found in the upper layer of the epidermis. About 200,000 people are diagnosed with this every year. Those individuals who are most susceptible are those that have fair skin and are middle-aged or elderly and have had extensive sun exposure in the past.
Symptoms:
1. Change in a wart or mole.
2. Red, tender, flat spot that bleeds easy.
3. Small, fleshy blow with a smooth, pearly appearing.
4. Shiny bump that may look like a mole or cyst.
5. Skin growth that looks like a wart.
6. Patch of skin that feels scaly, bleeds, or develops a crust.
Treatment:
Most skin cancers can be treated by removal of the lesion, making sure that the edges (margins) are free of tumor cells. The excisions allow for the better cure for both early and high-risk disease. Radiation therapy and cryotherapy (freezing the cancer off) can allow for adequate control of the disease; both, however, have lower total cure ranges than surgery.
Moh's Microsurgery is a process where the cancer is removed with the smallest amount of surrounding tissue and the edges checked directly to see if tumor is found. Chemotherapy, drugs are used to kill cancer cells. For cancers limited to the top layer of skin, creams or lotions containing anti-cancer agents may be applied directly to the skin. Other types of chemotherapy can be used to treat disease that has spread to other parts of the body.
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