Summer means sunshine, lots of sunshine, whether on the beach or in the mountains. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun is the main cause of the appearance of melanomas. (the most aggressive type of skin cancer, responsible for 65% of skin cancer deaths worldwide) and other types of skin cancer, which account for approximately 50% of all tumors diagnosed each year in the world.
Carcinomas appear as a lump on the skin that increases in size and that, if not detected in time, it may produce serious mutilation or scarring in the patient when removed. “However, we can say that this type of cancer is unlikely to cause the death of the patient.”
On another sideMelanoma is skin cancer that occurs in a mole or freckle that grows, changes color or appearance, and bleeds. “In this case, if not detected and removed in time, it could lead to patient mortality in a frequency of up to 50% in 5 years.”
The causes are clear “Inadequate exposure to the sun causes damage to skin cells which, in some cases, is irreparable and causes these cells to become cancerous, with the ability to grow out of control, spread to the rest of the body. body and finally, in some cases, they can even cause death. The burns of youth cause lesions, sometimes irreversible, which, at more advanced stages of life, for reasons still poorly understood, trigger skin cancers. The burn is manifested by reddening of the skin, which in the most severe and dangerous cases is accompanied by pain or blisters.. It occurs as a result of excessive exposure for our type of skin, whether for work or leisure reasons, “explains the clinical head of the Dermatology Service of the Valencian Institute of Oncology (IVO), the Dr Onofre Sanmartin.
How to prevent
Dr. Onofre Sanmartín gives the keys to reduce the risk of suffering from this type of cancer.
- Protect our skin when doing outdoor activities, avoiding strong sunlight hours, wearing protective goggles and using sunscreen with a minimum sun protection factor of 15 for daily activities and 30 or more for holidays in the sun.
- In the case of children, it is essential to avoid excessive exposure to the sunbecause they have thinner skin that defends less against ultraviolet rays, so it is advisable not to expose children to direct sunlight in their first year of life.
- Fair-skinned people, who tend to burn with sun exposure, and people with more than 50 moles are those who constitute the majority of the population at risk. Two important measures are avoiding sunburn, either with sunscreen creams or directly avoiding exposure, and self-examination, to detect new injuries or changes to existing ones.
- The self-examination must have a monthly frequency. Spots and moles on the skin, including the head, should be studied in detail. The most important alarm signal is that indicated by the word change. Change in a mole that has grown, or itchy, skin texture noticing the appearance of a small, slowly growing bump… Any alteration, growth or permanent change in skin texture should be subject to consultation. A simple formula for recognizing suspicious stains during self-examination is the so-called ABCDE rule: The asymmetry, B irregular edges, C varied color, D larger diameter of 6 millimeters, E scalable, Changing. If these five characteristics arise, the suspicion “is even more worrying and you have to go to the doctor as soon as possible”.
Treatments
Treatment will vary depending on the stage of the tumor. “The norm in stages I and II is surgery. In stages III, which are those where the disease presents with nodal involvement that is suppressedimmunotherapy is the reference treatment, explains the Doctor María José Juan, assistant doctor of the medical oncology service of the IVO.
“In IVO, we currently offer the patient immunotherapy treatment in the adjuvant and metastatic scenarios, having notably increased the median survival of patients treated in the latter scenario, reaching the survival of almost 50% of them at 6 years, figures that with traditional chemotherapy were unthinkable and unimaginable. This is extremely encouraging for clinicians and encourages us to continue to participate in clinical trials with new therapies combined with immunotherapy, among others, in search of even better results.”
However, there is still a percentage of patients who do not benefit from these new therapies or relapse after treatment. “In this line, From the IVO, we have set up a multidisciplinary team involved in different research projects at the level of molecular characterization of melanoma both independently, as well as in a coordinated manner with other national and international centres. Something similar happens with squamous cell carcinomas and other non-melanoma skin cancers in which immunotherapy is gaining ground with promising results,” says biologist Zaida García Casado, assistant in the IVO Molecular Biology Laboratory.