Skin Cancer :: essays research papers

Skin Cancer     Of all different kinds of cancer, skin cancer is one and only(a) of the mostcommonly diagnosed cancers in the fall in States. Skin cancer is a diseasewhich cancer cadres are found on the outer layers of the skin. Your skinprotects the body from heat, infection, light, injury and infection. It alsostores fat, water, and vitamin D. The skin has devil layers and several differentkinds of cells. With a certain life style these cells can becomecancerous.(Prodigy Web Browser An Introduction to skin Cancer NET, 1997)Melanoma is associated with the highest case-fatality station of all skincancers.(Mortality and Morbility Weekly Report Vol. 45/No. 17 , MMWR, 1996)Numerous studies permit delineated the natural history of skin cancers. Some cellcarcinomas tend to grow and invade slowly and steadily. Certain subtypes aremore aggressive, and certain sites of evanescerence (scalp, shoulders and nose)are associated with worse cases. Malignant melanoma ma y have a thin stage, inwhich survival rates are excellent. The length of thin, or radial, growth phasemay be months to years. If untreated at near point melanoma enters a quickgrowth phase. When this occurs the survival rates plummet.(Brandt, 1996) SkinCancer can be avoided. A change in lifestyle can reduce the risk of skincancer. This includes awareness of the reality of skin cancer, avoiding the sun,and self-examination and screening.     Most of the time when people think of a serious disease they think ofthings like lung cancer, heart disease, sexually transmitted diseases, andother hot topic diseases of that nature. Skin cancer awareness and theseriousness of skin cancer is faraway less emphasized. The MMWR did a survey ofknowledge of and awareness roughly melanoma in the united states in 1995. In 1996,an estimated 38,300 cases of melanoma were diagnosed, and an approximately7300 melanoma deaths would occur . Intervention strategies can be developedwith i nformation and public awareness of melanoma. (MMWR) To help awareness andpublic knowledge about melanoma, the American Academy of Dermatology conducted anation wide survey in 1995. (shown in appendix A) This report summarizes thesurvey findings, which indicate that a high proportion (42%) of respondents hadno knowledge about melanoma. The level of awareness was lowest among personsaged 18 to 24 years of age.(MMWR) Respondents were asked "Can you tell me whatmelanoma is?" 55% knew it was a type of cancer, 34% knew it was a type of skincancer and 42% did not know about melanoma. After being informed on melanoma,they identified at least one risk factor of it. Most identified the risk