Laura Landro, in the September 1, 2015 edition of The Wall Street Journal, disclosed facts for the 3.5 million known Americans who are non-melanoma skin cancer patients. The article’s author states: “Non-melanoma (basal cell and squamous cell) skin cancer, already the most common type of cancer in the U.S., puts patients at an increased risk not only for more skin cancers, but for other potentially more serious cancers.” Both can be cured if treated promptly.
Landro continues, “After patients have had a basal cell carcinoma, the risk of another increases by 40%…Squamous cell cancers can also reoccur, often within two years of removal. Patients with both types of non-melanoma cancers are also at increased risk for developing melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer.”
She continues by informing her readers that recent studies have revealed people with basal and squamous cell cancers “have an increased risk of a secondary primary cancer, including a breast and lung cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.”
We know that skin cancers are linked to cumulative skin damage from lifelong sun exposure. Basal cell cancers, which rarely spread, arise in cells that line the outermost layer of the skin. Squamous cell carcinomas, which begin in the upper layers of the skin, can grow deeper and destroy bone and tissue while spreading to other parts of the body.
One frightening study, the JAMA Dermatology 2014 Study, discloses through its leading author and dermatologist, Howard Rogers, “We thought 80% of all cancers should be the slow-growing kind (basal) but are now finding 50% are the potentially more aggressive kinds (squamous).”
Another study, published this past August in JAMA Dermatology, informs us that of “1,122 (patients) who had multiple primary melanomas, nearly 28% had another diagnosed within two to under five years.” Co-author of the study, Maryam Asgari, states, “Surveillance is very important…The danger is that patients “may fall off the radar, and aren’t coming back to be checked.”
One hospital in Northern California uses its electronic medical record system to find patients with a record of melanoma who haven’t had recent screenings. They then attempt to bring these vulnerable people back for testing. The Skin Cancer Foundation offers on their website, a free body map for tracking moles and other skin irregularities. Through a searchable state database on their website, the American Academy of Dermatology provides free skin cancer screenings’ locations.
Sun Citians: Be Alert! To find new skin cancers or to prevent reoccurrence of non-melanoma/melanoma skin cancers – likely within the first five years after initial treatment:
1. Examine your skin at least once a month searching for changes where treatment was done and new areas showing irregularities (see American Cancer Society’s web pages).
2. Have someone help you check difficult-to-see areas on your body.
3. Protect yourself from the sun’s rays (see Part 1 of this article).
4. Adhere to your doctor’s recommendations for follow-up visits.
5. Keep all medical records for physicians’ future use.
My friend’s 83-year-old husband, who worked outside with an accumulation of times in the sun, has had about ten total skin surgeries, five that have occurred in the past eight months. Even after having a Blue Light treatment (photodynamic therapy used as an alternate to liquid nitrogen skin spraying for pre-cancerous spots), one was discovered on his forehead. Recently, two Mohs treatments (see below) were used for one on the tip of his nose and one on his forehead. All were basal except one that was squamous.
His wife advises, “Check the scalp which could be hiding problems under the hair. Even my husband’s dermatologist missed this one blackish colored, uneven, irregular circle.” My friend’s husband now wears a hat at all times and goes for frequent screenings.
Joe Loughlin, an 86-year-old Sun City Stingray Swim Club member, spent his summers during high school and college years as an Atlantic Ocean lifeguard. After yearly sunburns and with no time to take proper care of his skin, Loughlin used only baby oil to keep his skin from cracking and zinc oxide to cover his nose and ears.
“Most (of my cancers) are on my face, neck, and arms, but a couple are on my back and legs,” related Loughlin. His first carcinoma occurred about 40 years ago.
“Now I get checked every three months for a full-body scan by the doctor,” he commented. Loughlin guesses that he has had at least forty or maybe more (carcinomas) since that first time.
“All were basal cell, but one was a melanoma which they got early and got rid of,” he added. He also recommends the Mohs procedure (begun by Dr. Mohs where after the outer skin cancer is surgically removed, the doctor examines carefully each subsequent layer of tissue under the problem area until he finds a layer that is completely cancer free).
Loughlin stated that his last surgery required four tries or four hours before the procedure was completed. Cancer removals are generally completed by stitching the troubled skin area.
Another Stingray member and “outdoor gal,” 88-year-old Joan Souchek, has had five squamous cell surgeries on her legs and nose. Souchek, like Loughlin, finds it difficult to remain out of the water for the ten days to two weeks often recommended by their doctors for healing. Souchek also goes for regular frequent skin screenings.
A final word on the subject: Your author, Joanie Koplos, 73, and also a Stingray member, recently completed her second squamous cancer cell removal in the facial area. Now she is more adamant than ever to be totally vigilant of her future outdoor swimming/walking/snowshoeing/recreational time in the sun here, in Colorado, and in Florida. With the knowledge she has learned while writing this article, Koplos is also determined to adhere to her scheduled six month dermatologist follow-up visits for the rest of her life.
