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Susan Lucy: "Basal Cell Carcinoma Affects Approximately One Million Americans Each Year"
Posted by Sun Safety Alliance at 7:33 AM
Susan Lucy, is a beach body coach. She loves to work out, eat healthy, and stay fit. Susan is a mom. She is a blogger, a tweeter...
Susan has skin cancer.
Read her story about being diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma.
Sun - Friend or Foe???
by
When I was a teen, I, like most girls my age, liked to go to the beach and lie in sun. I am very fair-skinned but do tan well but I certainly have had my share of sunburns as a youth. I never ever thought at 41, I would be diagnosed with skin cancer.
Now, I don't have the really bad kind - melonoma. I have Basal cell carcinoma (BCC), which is the most common form of skin cancer, affecting approximately one million Americans each year. In fact, it is the most common of all cancers. More than one out of every three new cancers are skin cancers, and the vast majority are basal cell carcinomas. These cancers arise in the basal cells, which line the deepest layer of the epidermis (top skin layer).
I am very good about going to the Dermatologist. My grandfather did die of Melonoma at 50 and I have a lot of moles and freckles. So once a year, I subject myself to a full body scan by my Dermatologist. I have had a few mysterious looking moles taken off but all in all, I get a clean bill of health and the "wear suncreen and I will see you next spring" speech. This time though, I had two red patches on my right shoulder and back that I had noticed over the winter and thought they were most likely eczema. When my dermatologist told me that she didn't like the look of them and wanted to biopsy, I knew they were probably cancer or at least pre-cancerous. When I called the office for results and they told me that the doctor would call me back, I really knew. That is never a good sign.
Anyone with a history of sun exposure can develop basal cell carcinoma. However, people who are at highest risk have fair skin, blond or red hair, and blue, green, or grey eyes. Those most often affected are older people, but as the number of new cases has increased sharply each year in the last few decades, the average age of patients at onset has steadily decreased. The disease is rarely seen in children, but occasionally a teenager is affected. Dermatologists report that more and more people in their twenties and thirties are being treated for this skin cancer. Men with basal cell carcinoma have outnumbered women with the disease, but more women are getting basal cell carcinomas than in the past.
Basal cell carcinomas are easily treated in their early stages. Although this skin cancer seldom spreads, or metastasizes, to vital organs, it can damage surrounding tissue, sometimes causing considerable destruction and disfigurement — and some basal cell carcinomas are more aggressive than others.
I have two options for treatment:
EXCISIONAL SURGERY
After numbing the area with local anesthesia, the physician uses a scalpel to remove the entire growth along with a surrounding border of normal skin as a safety margin. The skin around the surgical site is then closed with a number of stitches, and the excised tissue is sent to the laboratory for microscopic examination to verify that all the malignant cells have been removed. The effectiveness of the technique produces cure rates around 90 percent.
CURETTAGE AND ELECTRODESICCATION
Using local anesthesia, the physician scrapes off the cancerous growth with a curette (a sharp, ring-shaped instrument). The heat produced by an electrocautery needle destroys residual tumor and controls bleeding. This technique may be repeated twice or more to ensure that all cancer cells are eliminated. It can produce cure rates approaching those of surgical excision, but may not be as useful for aggressive basal cell carcinomas or those in high-risk or difficult sites.
Because my cancer is superficial, I am planning on the latter option because the recovery is quicker and I won't need stitches. I still will have two circular scars as opposed to a linear one but I can deal with that. This cancer developed in the last year. Had I not had yearly checkups, I may not have had this option.
People who have had one basal cell carcinoma are at risk for developing others over the years, either in the same area or elsewhere on the body. For the next year, I will have to go back every 3 months to make sure more cancer does not develop in other areas.
I didn't post this note for pity but rather to hopefully educate people about the importance of having yearly skin checks with a dermatologist.
I am also using this as a learning lesson for my kids who give me grief all the time about wearing sunscreen. The damage on me was done years ago. 85% of sun damage is done by the time you are 18 years old. I have taken pictures of my shoulder and back biopsy sites and have talked extensively to them about wearing sunscreen. They have never had a sunburn but as they get older, they are more resistant to my insistence that they apply it every time they go out in the sun. We have a house on Cape Cod so it is virtually impossible for us to stay out of the sun. Hopefully, they will learn from my experience.
Be well,
Susan
Susan will be having her skin cancer removed August 24th, 2009. We wish her the best of luck and will update you as soon as she updates her blog: http://getfitwithsusan.blogspot.com/
Now, I don't have the really bad kind - melonoma. I have Basal cell carcinoma (BCC), which is the most common form of skin cancer, affecting approximately one million Americans each year. In fact, it is the most common of all cancers. More than one out of every three new cancers are skin cancers, and the vast majority are basal cell carcinomas. These cancers arise in the basal cells, which line the deepest layer of the epidermis (top skin layer).
 |
| From Sun Safety Alliance Photos |
I am very good about going to the Dermatologist. My grandfather did die of Melonoma at 50 and I have a lot of moles and freckles. So once a year, I subject myself to a full body scan by my Dermatologist. I have had a few mysterious looking moles taken off but all in all, I get a clean bill of health and the "wear suncreen and I will see you next spring" speech. This time though, I had two red patches on my right shoulder and back that I had noticed over the winter and thought they were most likely eczema. When my dermatologist told me that she didn't like the look of them and wanted to biopsy, I knew they were probably cancer or at least pre-cancerous. When I called the office for results and they told me that the doctor would call me back, I really knew. That is never a good sign.
Anyone with a history of sun exposure can develop basal cell carcinoma. However, people who are at highest risk have fair skin, blond or red hair, and blue, green, or grey eyes. Those most often affected are older people, but as the number of new cases has increased sharply each year in the last few decades, the average age of patients at onset has steadily decreased. The disease is rarely seen in children, but occasionally a teenager is affected. Dermatologists report that more and more people in their twenties and thirties are being treated for this skin cancer. Men with basal cell carcinoma have outnumbered women with the disease, but more women are getting basal cell carcinomas than in the past.
 |
| From Sun Safety Alliance Photos |
Basal cell carcinomas are easily treated in their early stages. Although this skin cancer seldom spreads, or metastasizes, to vital organs, it can damage surrounding tissue, sometimes causing considerable destruction and disfigurement — and some basal cell carcinomas are more aggressive than others.
I have two options for treatment:
EXCISIONAL SURGERY
After numbing the area with local anesthesia, the physician uses a scalpel to remove the entire growth along with a surrounding border of normal skin as a safety margin. The skin around the surgical site is then closed with a number of stitches, and the excised tissue is sent to the laboratory for microscopic examination to verify that all the malignant cells have been removed. The effectiveness of the technique produces cure rates around 90 percent.
 |
| From Sun Safety Alliance Photos |
CURETTAGE AND ELECTRODESICCATION
Using local anesthesia, the physician scrapes off the cancerous growth with a curette (a sharp, ring-shaped instrument). The heat produced by an electrocautery needle destroys residual tumor and controls bleeding. This technique may be repeated twice or more to ensure that all cancer cells are eliminated. It can produce cure rates approaching those of surgical excision, but may not be as useful for aggressive basal cell carcinomas or those in high-risk or difficult sites.
 |
| From Sun Safety Alliance Photos |
Because my cancer is superficial, I am planning on the latter option because the recovery is quicker and I won't need stitches. I still will have two circular scars as opposed to a linear one but I can deal with that. This cancer developed in the last year. Had I not had yearly checkups, I may not have had this option.
People who have had one basal cell carcinoma are at risk for developing others over the years, either in the same area or elsewhere on the body. For the next year, I will have to go back every 3 months to make sure more cancer does not develop in other areas.
I didn't post this note for pity but rather to hopefully educate people about the importance of having yearly skin checks with a dermatologist.
I am also using this as a learning lesson for my kids who give me grief all the time about wearing sunscreen. The damage on me was done years ago. 85% of sun damage is done by the time you are 18 years old. I have taken pictures of my shoulder and back biopsy sites and have talked extensively to them about wearing sunscreen. They have never had a sunburn but as they get older, they are more resistant to my insistence that they apply it every time they go out in the sun. We have a house on Cape Cod so it is virtually impossible for us to stay out of the sun. Hopefully, they will learn from my experience.
 |
| From Sun Safety Alliance Photos |
Be well,
Susan
 |
| From Sun Safety Alliance Photos |
2 comments:
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