ST. PAUL, Minn. - As we all get out and enjoy the beautiful sunshine this time of the year, doctors want us to remember to protect our skin in the process.
Dr. Arek Dudek, oncologist at HealthPartners, stresses what we already know - that with malignant melanoma, or skin cancer, the key is catching it early. “If it's diagnosed very early it can be completely cured,” Dr. Dudek says.
He says there are about 90,000 new cases of malignant melanoma in the U.S. every year and that about 10 percent of those cases result in death.
According to Dudek, there are two different peaks of skin cancer - around the age of 40 and then again around 60. He says men are less likely to be diagnosed than women when they're younger, but as they get older that trend changes.
“If you approach the age of 60, you have double the amount of melanoma incidents in men than in women, and by the age of 80 it's triple,” he says.
The key to prevention, he says, is protecting yourself from the sun by making sure you're covering your skin and wearing sunscreen. When it comes to sunscreen, he says it's less about the SPF and more about how much you're putting on.
“You need to put another layer every several hours to make sure you continue to have that protection,” Dr. Dudek adds.
He also recommends avoiding tanning booths and doing self-exams of your skin monthly. According to Dr. Dudek, think of your skin as a single organ that all works together.
“Exposure and stress of skin to ultraviolet light in one place can cause damage in another part of skin. Even the covered skin,” Dr. Dudek says.