Skin Cancer Awareness Month: How to detect and prevent this deadly disease

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Skin cancer affects people of all ages and races, and it most often develops on the areas of a person’s skin most exposed to the sun.  It is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in the U.S., with more than 3.5 million diagnoses annually.  According to the American Cancer Society, skin cancer diagnoses equal more than the new diagnoses of breast, prostate, lung and colon cancers combined.  

There are three major types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma.  BCC is the most common form of skin cancer and most often occurs on the most sun-exposed areas of your body (i.e. face and neck).  It often appears as a pearly or waxy bump, or a flat, flesh-colored or brown scar-like lesion.  SCC also often occurs on sun-exposed areas of your body, but it presents as a firm, red nodule or a flat, scaly or crusty lesion.  

Melanoma, on the other hand, can develop anywhere on your body – even on skin that is not often exposed to the sun.  In men, it most commonly appears on the trunk, head or neck – and in women, the lower legs.  It often presents as a large brown spot with dark speckles; a mole that changes color, size or texture; a small lesion with irregular borders; or dark lesions on your palms, fingertips, soles or toes.  It is from these signs that the “ABCDEs of Melanoma” were developed:

A: Asymmetry of the mole.  If you were to draw a line across the mole, the two halves will be very different.

B: Borders of the mole are uneven.

C: Color varies throughout the mole.  This can include different shades of brown, tan, black or even red, blue or another color.

D: Diameter of the mole is greater than 6 millimeters (or the size of a pencil eraser); melanomas tend to be larger than benign moles.

E: Evolution of the mole, in size, shape, color, and texture can be indicative of melanoma.

It is estimated that one in five Americans will develop skin cancer, so the chance of you or someone you know developing skin cancer is more real than you may think.  Fortunately, there are some easy tips to help prevent skin cancer.  

First, wear at least SPF 30 sunscreen and protective clothing (e.g. long sleeve shirts, pants, wide-brimmed hats, sunglasses, etc.) every day – even on cloudy days.  Reapply your sunscreen every two to three hours, especially if you are swimming or sweating.  Seek shade during the sun’s harshest hours: between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.  

Second, avoid tanning, tanning beds and sun burns.  Also, be watchful for any new or changing spots on your skin.  If you do see any spots that are new, have changed, are itchy or are bleeding, see your dermatologist immediately. Not all changes are caused by skin cancer, but it’s always best to speak with your dermatologist.  Early detection affords you the greatest likelihood of successful treatment.

Dr. David B. Samadi is the Vice Chairman of the Department of Urology and Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He is a board-certified urologist, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of urological disease, with a focus on robotic prostate cancer treatments. To learn more please visit his websites RoboticOncology.com and SMART-surgery.com. Find Dr. Samadi on Facebook.

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Astronomy algorithms help detect aggressive cancers

Cancer researchers are teaming up with astronomers using computerized algorithms designed for viewing distant galaxies to spot biomarkers that can indicate the aggressiveness of a tumor, Medical News Today reported.

The method pathologists currently use for finding out the aggressiveness of a tumor involves looking through a microscope at a stained tumor sample to identify different proteins and cell changes. A computerized system would speed up the process.

In a study published in the British Journal of Cancer, teams from the Cancer Research U.K. Cambridge Institute, and both the Department of Oncology and the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. looked at more than 2,000 breast cancer tumors to determine the levels of three proteins known to be biomarkers for aggressive cancer.

"We've exploited the natural overlap between the techniques astronomers use to analyze deep sky images from the largest telescopes and the need to pinpoint subtle differences in the staining of tumor samples down the microscope," lead author, Dr. Raza Ali, a pathology fellow from the Cancer Research U.K. Cambridge Institute, said in a statement.

Researchers analyzed each tumor sample both manually with a pathologist using a microscope and automatically with a computer using adapted algorithms. When they compared the results, they found the computer algorithms came to the same conclusion as the pathologists up to 96 percent of the time.

"The results have been even better than we'd hoped; with our new automated approach performing with accuracy comparable to the time-consuming task of scoring images manually, after only relatively minor adjustments to the formula," said Ali.

The researchers now plan to do a large-scale, international study, using tumor samples from more than 20,000 breast cancer patients.

"Modern techniques are giving us some of the first insights into the key genes and proteins important in predicting the success or failure of different cancer treatments,” said senior author Carlos Caldas, a professor at the Cancer Research U.K. Cambridge Institute. “But before these can be applied in the clinic, their usefulness needs to be verified in hundreds or sometimes thousands of tumor samples."

New methods are already helping researchers analyze up to 4,000 images a day, Caldas added.

Click here for more on this study from Medical News Today.

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