As a teenager growing up in sub-tropical Australia, my lifestyle was dominated by sports activities like surfing, cricket and tennis. It was not considered “cool” back then to wear a hat or cap and solar block-out creams were largely unknown. It was even believed that spreading coconut oil on the skin helped fair-skinned people like me to develop a tanned skin! The consequence? I am recovering this week from surgical excisions of various forms of skin cancers that are the legacy of my earlier unprotected sporting activities.
My message this summer, enjoy yourself, but take care of your skin! As we enter the sunnier months of the year when solar ultraviolet radiation intensities increase, there is one health threat that everyone in NZ needs to consider and that is skin cancer. The most dangerous common type is melanoma. It is even more threatening to human health than the other common forms – squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) or basal cell carcinomas (BCC), which constitute 95 per cent of all skin cancers.
Melanoma, the most dangerous form, causes 75 per cent of all skin cancer deaths. Melanoma cancers consist of abnormal skin pigment cells called melanocytes. Another type of lesion, actinic keratosis, is precancerous.
Melanomas exist in a variety of forms some of which are more dangerous than others. In scientific terms, according to a US National Institutes of Health review, ultra-violet radiation in sunlight is the most prominent and ubiquitous physical carcinogen in our.