How staying sun smart could save your life
09 Feb 2017
Skin cancer is on the rise in Australia. Here we give you the know-how to stay safe this summer.
Many Australians are sun safe these days thanks to the ‘Slip! Slop! Slap!’ campaign of the 1980s. Treatment has come a long way in recent years too, with breakthroughs in therapies and survival rates for the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma. But despite this, Australia still has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world. Here we discuss some of the exciting new treatments and how you can best protect yourself from the harsh Australian sun.
What is skin cancer?
Skin cancer is best described as skin cells growing out of control because their DNA is damaged. There are three main types: squamous and basal cell carcinomas, which are mostly non-life threatening cancers, and melanoma – a serious and often fatal form of cancer.
Melanoma is the fourth most common cancer in Australia, accounting for about 10 per cent of all cancers in men and nine per cent in women. After a biopsy confirms melanoma, surgery is used in the early stages of treatment. At this stage there is a 90 per cent chance of the cancer being cured, but when left unchecked, melanoma can spread around the body quickly. Approximately 1500 Australians die every year from this disease.
What are the risk factors for skin cancer?
Your risk of developing skin cancers like melanoma rises with increased ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure and sunburn. Other factors that put you at risk include a weakened immune system, having fair skin and a tendency to burn or having freckles, moles and light hair.
“Having a history of prolonged sun exposure and sunburn as a child or teenager, or a family history of skin cancer also puts you at higher risk of melanoma. Your risk also increases with age,” explained Carole Renouf, CEO of Melanoma Institute Australia.
How do I spot a skin cancer on my skin?
Skin cancers can pop up anywhere on your body, even places that haven’t been exposed to the sun. They can appear as new moles, coloured spots or unusual freckles. Skin cancers are sometimes flat, smudgy, lumpy or crusty and can appear in more than one colour – either pearly or pale, brown, black, blue, red or grey. If you notice any changes, see your GP or dermatologist. Use ABCD to look for suspicious spots where:
- A asymmetry,lookforspotsthat are asymmetrical.
- border,lookforspotswith uneven borders.
- colour,lookforspotswith uneven or unusual colour.
- diameter, identify spots that are larger than 7mm.
How is skin cancer treated?
Treatment depends on the kind of skin cancer you have and the stage of skin cancer. “In the non-melanoma cancers or early stage melanomas, your dermatologist might use surgery to remove your skin cancer or in patients with more advanced melanoma more intensive treatments may be required,” said Renouf.
Ongoing treatment may include immunotherapies, drug therapies, radiation and chemotherapies.
Just a few years ago, patients whose melanoma had spread had a very poor prognosis with only 30-35 per cent surviving five years after diagnosis. But now, new drug therapies that block molecules involved in the growth of tumour cells as well as immunotherapies that stimulate the body’s own cells to destroy melanoma cells have tripled survival rates.
These treatments offer patients with stage 4 melanoma renewed hope, says Renouf. “Thanks to these new treatments, the 30 per cent survival rate has increased to over 75 per cent five years on,” she said.
A clinical trial by the Melanoma Institute Australia is now exploring the effectiveness of using more than one immunotherapy drug in combination to kill tumour cells in the brains of patients with the disease. The institute is also mapping the genomes of 500 melanoma tumours to create more targeted therapies for patients in the future.
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