BALTIMORE — The first Monday in may is Melanoma Monday. One out of every 50 Americans will develop melanoma at some point in their lifetime.
Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer but there are many ways to prevent it.
GBMC Department of Family Medicine chair Dr. Kevin Ferentz warns that the sting of a childhood sunburn can have long lasting effects.
“Which is why it’s so important that you never get sunburn. Even two or three sunburns in your youth dramatically, is enough to dramatically, not just increase, by dramatically increase your chance of developing skin cancer,” Ferentz said.
It’s something Dr. Ferentz knows first hand.
“Melanoma is a very scary word. I actually myself had a thin melanoma when I was graduating medical school 40 years ago. And so, when you hear the term melanoma, unfortunately you think I’m gonna probably die of this,” Ferentz said.
Dr. Ferentz points out 100,000 Americans are diagnosed with melanoma every year. About 8,000 of those cases turn deadly, which is why he says it's so important to catch it early.
“If you get it before it starts to get bigger, when it’s less than a millimeter in depths you will be cured as soon as you take it off. And, it doesn’t even require extensive surgery to take it off. In the old days, they took much much more skin off than we do now,” Ferentz said.
Skin cancer does not discriminate. It can affect people of all ages, no matter the color of their skin.
While doctors say people with lighter skin tones are more likely to get melanoma, people with darker skin tones are not immune. There are five things that everyone should be on the lookout for and to ask themselves when examining their skin. It's easy to remember as “ABCDE.”
A is for asymmetry, is the lesion oddly shaped?
B is for border, does the lesion have a jagged border?
C is for color, does the lesion have shades of different colors?
D is for diameter, s the diameter larger than a pencil eraser?
E is for evolving, has it changed in size or shape over time?
Dr. Ferentz said if anyone has something on their skin that hasn't changed in many years, it's unlikely that it’s melanoma. If doctors do find someone has skin cancer, Dr. Ferentz said it doesn't have to be a death sentence.
“There used to not be much effective treatment, other than the removal of the lesion. There are now very sophisticated, chemotherapeutic agents that are being used by oncologist that actually can make people even with advanced melanoma, either cured or live a whole lot longer than they did before. The key to melanoma is prevention,” Ferentz said.
“Wearing sunscreen and wearing a hat, critically important, if you wear a hat with a visor you’re less likely to get a lot of sun exposure on your face,” Ferentz added.
Melanoma Monday is symbolized by wearing black clothing.
Dr. Ferentz recommends using 30 SPF sunscreen, and that anything beyond 50 SPF is unnecessary. Dr. Ferentz also advises to reapply as necessary.
“You have to keep reapplying the sunscreen. That’s one of the bigger issues and there’s also no such thing as waterproof sunscreen. Anytime you go into the water after you’ve been wearing sunscreen, you have to reapply the sunscreen,” Ferentz said.
