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- Melanoma Epidemic In Older White Men-
Melanoma Epidemic In Older White Men-
Know the A,B,C,D, E’s of Diagnosing Melanoma. Know the Warning Signs. If You Want a Professional to Check Something Out, go see a Dermatologist with a Dermoscope-
While I hate to admit it, I’m white and while I don’t consider myself older, at 62 I think my 22 year old son considers me to be older. According to research, I am at a high risk of skin cancer.
I have six of the risk factors listed below for melanoma. I sunburned as a kid repeatedly and I have already had several moles surgically removed from my face though the diagnosis for each biopsy was a form or pre-skin cancer.
I have pre-skin cancer freckles on my bald head (actinic keratosis) and to be honest, Dr. Forney’s message resonated with me.
There are a host of evidence-based, non-toxic therapies that research has shown can reduce the risk of melanoma. I’m not only talking about wearing a hat. I’m talking about supplementation such as grape seed extract. According to research some of the evidence-based, non-toxic therapies also repair some or all of the sun damage.
I am a both a cancer survivor and cancer coach. Scroll down the page, post a question or a comment. I will reply to you ASAP.
Thank you,
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Melanoma at a glance-
- Risks– UV Exposure, HPV, Genetics, Skin Pigment, Moles, Immunosuppression, Previous Skin Cancer Diagnosis,
- Symptoms-Mole, Shape (A,B,C,D,E), Itching, Bleeding,
- Diagnosis-Visual Inspection, Skin Biopsy,
- Prognosis–Staging, In-situ, I, II, III, IV, Five year survival rates
- Therapy– Conventional, Non-Conventional, Integrative, Alternative
Recommended Reading:
Skin Cancer Epidemics in the Elderly as An Emerging Issue in Geriatric Oncology
“Skin cancer is a worldwide, emerging clinical need in the elderly white population, with a steady increase in incidence rates, morbidity and related medical costs. Skin cancer is a heterogeneous group of cancers comprising cutaneous melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC), which predominantly affect elderly patients, aged older than 65 years. Melanoma has distinct clinical presentations in the elderly patient and represents a challenging question in terms of clinical management. NMSC includes the basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and presents a wide disease spectrum in the elderly population, ranging from low-risk to high-risk tumours, advanced and inoperable disease.
Treatment decisions for NMSC are preferentially based on tumour characteristics, patient’s chronological age and physician’s preferences and operational settings. Several treatment options are available for NMSC, from surgery to non-invasive/medical therapies, but patient-based factors, such as geriatric comorbidities and patient’s life expectancy, do not frequently modulate treatment goals.
In melanoma, age-related variations in clinical management are significant and may frequently lead to under-treatment, limiting access to advanced surgical and medical treatments. Clinical decision-making in the care of elderly skin cancer patient should ideally implement a geriatric assessment, prioritizing patient-based factors and efficiently differentiating fit from frail cancer patients.
Current clinical practice guidelines for NMSC and melanoma only partially address geriatric aspects of cancer care, such as frailty, limited life-expectancy, geriatric comorbidities and treatment compliance. We review the recent evidence on the scope and problem of skin cancer in the elderly population as well as age-related variations in its clinical management, highlighting the potential role of a geriatric approach in optimizing dermato-oncological care.”
The Great Millennial Skin Cancer Crisis
“Around the time that Dustin Allen, a soft-spoken electrical engineer, turned 27, he noticed a small red spot on his right temple. He thought it was nothing, maybe an acne scar. But it didn’t fade away. In fact, it kept getting darker, and he started to see splotches of dark brown popping up inside it, too. He asked his primary-care physician if he should be concerned. “She said it just looked like sun damage and they typically don’t worry about that until it gets to about nine millimeters,” he says. His father had had melanoma, though, so he knew he was at higher risk for this most dangerous form of skin cancer—having a first-degree relative with it can push up your odds by 50 percent. And with his red hair and freckle-prone complexion, another risk factor, he couldn’t shake the bad feeling he had about that spot.
Allen tried to see a dermatologist to get a second opinion, but finding one where he lives in Texas—one who took his health insurance and had an appointment slot available—wasn’t easy, so he put it off until he had better insurance. When he finally got to see a dermatologist—five years later—the doctor initially said it was sun damage, but Allen pushed for a biopsy. Two weeks later, the doctor’s number showed up on his caller ID, and Allen knew the news wasn’t good. Sure enough, it was melanoma. “I wouldn’t say I anticipated it, but I wasn’t completely surprised,” he says. Luckily, it was still at an early stage, and within weeks he had surgery to remove the cancer. He was 32 years old. Many guys aren’t so lucky. Sometimes the time between diagnosis and a melanoma becoming fatal can be as short as a few months….”