Awesome Tips To Stay Sun-Safe This Summer!

Men face an increased risk of the deadly skin cancer, but checking your skin and using sunscreen can keep you safe, this summer.

The Skin Cancer Foundation (US) says that men over the age of 50 are more than twice as likely as women to die from skin cancer, and melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, is at a crisis level for men.

What’s frustrating for Dr Rosemary Keskinen, a Cleveland Clinic dermatologist, is that skin cancer is easily preventable (see ‘What You Can Do’), but many men seek treatment only after it’s progressed.

“You can see (skin cancer) and you can see that something isn’t right there, but it doesn’t cause discomfort in most cases, so men are more likely to put it off,” she said.

Types of Skin Cancer

Skin cancers fall into three categories: Basal cell (the most common form), squamous cell and melanoma. Sun exposure can also trigger actinic keratosis, rough-textured precancerous tumors that can develop into squamous cell cancers.

Basal and squamous cell cancers – which comprise 95% of all skin cancers – develop mainly in areas exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet light. While these cancers rarely spread to other parts of the body, those that do spread can be fatal.