Categories: Dermatology

What types of skin cancer are there?

There are two main types of skin cancer: melanoma skin cancer and non-melanoma skin cancer. Melanoma skin cancer is the part of the nevus, of moles, that is, those small brown spots that often appear at birth and that with the incidence of ultraviolet radiation can eventually malignify. Other times they appear before a healthy skin through a bad mole, therefore, melanomas can appear on pre-existing moles or on healthy skin.

This type of cancer is the most malignant and the most dangerous. The thickness of the melanoma is measured in millimeters and is so aggressive that a millimeter of a melanoma comes to mean the same as a centimeter of a colon, breast or lung cancer. The cells have so much metastasis potential that staging although measuring 1,5 or 2 millimeters can affect attached nodes.

Melanoma predisposition factors

The factors that predispose a person to melanoma are genetic factors and environmental factors. Among the genetic factors is having a first-degree relative affected by melanoma or presenting more than 50 moles, many nevus or more of 10 nevus in the right upper limb, or having a history of dysplastic nevi that are nevus precursors of melanoma. All of these circumstances are directly related to an increased likelihood of developing melanoma skin cancer.

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Nonmelanoma skin cancer

Then there is the other type of non-melanoma skin cancer that is much less serious and of course is more frequent. In fact, this type of cancer is the most frequent worldwide. Within this non-melanoma skin cancer the most frequent would be basal cell carcinoma which is a tumor that is generated from the basaloid cells of the epidermis. These are small tumors that look like bright pearls of normal color with many vessels on the surface that sometimes ulcerate. Normally they do not exceed the skin layer in depth, that is, they do not usually metastasize as frequently as melanoma.

Influence of ultraviolet radiation

In this non-melanoma cancer, ultraviolet radiation is very influential, especially in people with fair skin or who have received seasonal radiation, that is, those people who have not sunbathed all year and suddenly burn in summer.

Epidermoid skin cancer

Another type of non-melanoma skin cancer is epidermoid skin cancer, which is a type of carcinoma that appears mostly at the level of the lower lip. However, it can also appear as malignancy of those small lesions that are dandruff that fall and re-form giving rise to small wounds especially on the scalp. This epidermoid skin cancer is more frequent in patients of a certain age who do not have much hair that protects them where the wounds can be malignant and form lesions such as cutaneous horns or keratin-like lesions, yellowish or even bleeding, at the level of the scalp or of the lip. This type of carcinoma is related to these chronic exposures to the sun. For this reason it is very common in sailors as well as in people who work in agriculture and have a clear skin. Although this cancer can also metastasize, it does so less frequently than melanoma.

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Ultraviolet exposure in Canary Islands and skin cancer

These two fundamental types of skin cancer, melanoma and non-melanoma, have as their main and fundamental external factor ultraviolet exposure. In Canary Islandswe have to be very aware of this because the ultraviolet radiation we have in this geographical location is much higher than the entire European average and triples the maximum ultraviolet radiation that exists in Spain. In addition, in Canary Islands we do not have people adapted to the environment since being in Africa our skin phototype should be much more brown but the average is a Caucasian average, that is, people with a Mediterranean skin type to whom ultraviolet radiation is going to affect more.