VOORHEES, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Wendy Wollman-Rubin, 66, is a squamous cell carcinoma survivor. She was a sunbather in her youth.
“I remember putting the foil under my face in college, you know, to get really tan, but I never got tan. It just got burned,” she said.
It was only after her sister was diagnosed with skin cancer that she began to pay attention to her own skin. She was in her late 40s when a doctor identified skin cancer between her nose and lip.
“I thought it was a whitehead. It looked like a pimple and I was squeezing it,” she said. “It never looked like what they show you on the little charts.”
Wollman-Rubin stays on top of this now, and she has had several Mohs micrographic procedures to treat other squamous cell carcinomas that have surfaced over the years.
“That was my wake-up call to get busy with sunscreen, hats, sunglasses — everything I could do to stop getting skin cancers. But then, as the years progressed, I knew kind of what to look for. They came up really fast,” Wollman-Rubin said.
Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the U.S. With more than 5 million cases each year. About eight out of 10 of these are squamous cell and basal cell cancers. The most common types of skin cancer are caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation and can be prevented. Sunlight is the main source of UV rays. Tanning beds are another source of UV rays.
Dr. Evelyn Robles-Rodriguez, is director of outreach, prevention and survivorship at MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper University Medical Center in Camden. She’s also an American Cancer Society grantee. She says some skin types are very sensitive to the sun.
“People that are fair skinned, with blue eyes, red hair, blonde hair — they definitely tend to get more burned and more damage from the sun because they have less melanin to protect them,” she said.
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She says dark skin tones are at risk as well.
“It doesn't mean that you're immune to the damage from the sun. So it's as important whether you have fair skin or darker skin to ensure that you're using good safety and good protection when you're out in the sun.”
African Americans are more likely to have lower survival rates when they are diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer in particular. This is partly because, compared with non-Hispanic white people, people with darker skin are more often diagnosed at a later stage.
“For people who are darker skinned, sometimes you tend to find those melanomas not so much in the more common areas, like your back and arms and areas that have been exposed to the sun. But you might find them on the soles of your feet or between the toes. So sometimes that's why it may be harder for people of color to find earlier-stage skin cancers, because they may be in areas that are a little bit more hidden,” Robles-Rodriguez said.
She says, as a rule of thumb, where possible, avoid prolonged sun exposure during the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., stay covered with light clothing, and wear sunscreen. It’s also a good idea to give your skin a regular check for abnormalities.
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