 only do sunburns increase skin cancer, a tan is a sign of sun damage and will increase your risk of skin cancer.
Sun protection includes sunscreen but more importantly wearing a hat, sunglasses, protective clothing and looking for shade to avoid the sun are the best sun protection measures. Every day you should be applying a broad-spectrum sunscreen with a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 30 to your face. New FDA rules require sunscreen manufactures to have both a UVA and UVB sunscreen in their product.
Annual Skin Checks:
It is important to do self-examinations and become with your skin and the pattern of your moles. Also, get annual skin checks especially if you have a personal history or a family history of skin cancer, multiple sunburns and/or very fair skin. Mole mapping may be helpful in monitoring your moles.
Actinic Keratosis (Pre Skin Cancer)
Actinic keratosis (AK) is the most common type of precancerous skin lesion. An actinic keratosis is evidence that sun damage has occurred and that the individual is at greater risk of developing skin cancer. Actinic keratosis normally occur on the skin that has had the most sun damage like the face, lips, ears, scalp, neck, back of the hands, shoulders, forearms and back. When an actinic keratosis develops on the lip, they are called Actinic Cheilitis. Actinic keratosis usually appear as small crusty, scaly bumps ranging in size from 1 mm to 1 inch. They are dry and rough to the touch and can be raw or sensitive. If actinic keratosis are treated early, they can almost always be completely removed before turning into skin cancer. However, if left untreated, actinic keratosis may develop into squamous cell carcinoma.
Precancerous Skin Treatment
Liquid nitrogen is applied to the lesion to freeze it off.
Photodynamic Therapy (PDT)
A topical agent, Levulan, is applied to the pre-skin cancer (AK’s) and the skin around it for 1 – 2 hours the treated skin is exposed to Blu light that activates the Levulan and selectively destroys AKs while causing minimal damage to the surrounding skin.
Topical Chemotherapy Agents
These treat both visible and invisible lesions with minimal risk of scarring. Common topical agents include Imiquimod and Fluorouracil. Imiquimod is called a biologic agent because it turns up the patient’s own immune system to fight off the cancer and pre-cancer cells. Imiquimod was first introduced to treat skin cancers in the late 1990’s. Imiquimod treats both actinic keratosis and superficial basal cell skin cancer and superficial squamous cell skin cancer. The cure rates for this treatment are not as high as excisions or MOHS surgery, though. Fluorouracil is a chemotherapy treatment that targets cancer cells and kills them. Fluorouracil has been around for decades and is very useful for treating pre-skin cancers.
Pre-cancers and cancerous lesions of the skin are usually treated with either surgical methods or liquid nitrogen. A topical cream, Imiquimod, has been on the mark for over 15 years to treat these lesions. Imiquimod is a cream that when applied to the precancerous lesions, increases the body’s own immune system to fight the abnormal cells. This process provides you a non-surgical option to treat the cancer and/or pre-cancerous cells. Imiquimod cream is FDA approved to treat superficial Basal Cell Carcinoma, Actinic keratosis, as well as squamous cell carcinoma and even malignant melanomas.
Treatment for pre-cancers (actinic keratosis) may be 6 – 8 weeks and 12-16 weeks for basal cell skin cancer.
Application instruction Note – packets are very tiny and may be used multiple times.
- Open the packet with scissors or a simple pinhole. Gently squeeze the pouch and with a toothpick, remove a tiny amount of cream to cover the area you wish to treat.
- Place the small amount of cream on the center of the area to treat.
- Do NOT spread the cream to the surrounding tissue as this may cause unnecessary irritation.
- Apply the Imiquimod cream three times a week to start – usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Stop application when a rash or redness develops at the site 