Here comes the summer...and the sun. Thoughts on skin cancer from Dr. Robert J. Brueck MD, Fort Myers plastic surgeon.

Dr. Robert J. Brueck MD, a Board Certified plastic surgeon, frequently blogs on subjects of health, skin and developments in plastic surgery. This time, he comments on melanoma.
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Memorial Day Weekend signals the start of summer, when we all tend to spend more time in the sun and the sun is closer to the Northern Hemisphere.

For years we have known about the cause-effect relationship with basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma and the sun.

Some researchers, though, were not convinced that UV radiation had a similar cause and effect relationship with melanomas.

Now, a new study published in Nature (December 2009) confirms the role of the sun in the development of melanomas. Researchers at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton UK mapped the complete genome of a patient with melanoma; in other words these were the genes of the melanoma from that particular patient.

The researchers found thousands of mutations in the patient’s genome, all of which were caused by radiation. There were in excess of 33,000 mutations mapped. They compared the genome of normal skin and melanoma. These abnormal mutations occur over many years but our bodies are programmed to repair the damage done to the DNA caused by the inciting effect of the sun.

In the end, the failure of our body’s ability to repair the damaged DNA or the gene, results in melanoma.

Be cautious, be alert and get a checkup. Melanoma is lethal because it is the one form of skin cancer that has the ability to metastasize not only through the lymphatic, but the blood stream as well.

There is no doubt that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and that ounce should be an SPF of 30 to 35.