Cancer

Skin is the largest organ of the human body and it protects us from the exterior factors that might affect us. Apart from the protective role, the skin is also used for many other purposes that are very important for the good functioning of the body like adjusting the temperature by sweat or the touch sense that offers us a lot of information about the environment. Any way because its surface is very large, the skin is likely to suffer multiple injuries and other diseases like skin cancer for example. It actually is one of the most frequent cancer type in the world and it affects lots of people every year but it is rarely deadly because it is easy to detect since the skin is on the exterior of our bodies so highly noticeable.

There are more causes of skin cancer but the most frequent one is UV radiation from the sun. That means that if your skin is overexposed and unprotected to direct action of the sun, especially during the hot midday hours when the radiation transmition is maximum. The UV rays damage the DNA in the skin cells and make them grow in an uncontrolled way, degenarating into skin cancer. Even though staying too long in the sun, so getting overexposed to these UV radiations is the main cause for skin cancer, it is not the only one.



One of the other causes of skin cancer is genetic predisposition. If a person has first degree relatives who suffered from or are suffering from skin cancer or any other kind of cancer the possibility of getting this disease increase a lot. They usually get some nevi or moles are they are called which can appear all over the surface of the skin of a person's body. If they are too large and get damaged or hurt they can cause skin cancer. That is why doctors strongly recommend their removal as the use to say "there's no such thing as a harmless mole" - it can turn into melanoma any time.



Then there are the chronic burns or wounds that do not heal for a long time and these can turn into cancer in time. They are called Marjolin's ulcers and can become squamous cell carcinoma, that is also a type of skin cancer. Even though it might seem unrelated HPV infection is also a cause for skin cancer to develop. It can appear in the areas of the body that are affected by this Human Papillomavirus like the anus, the genitals, fingers or even mouth in the case of those practicing oral sex. This infection is responsible for weakening the immune system, especially in the organs affected and it is known that cancer uses this weakness to get installed in the exact organ that is weaker.

I know that some of you do not want to hear this or even admit it is true, but smoking, too, is smoking. Statistics say that a very bog number of the patients diagnosed with skin cancer are smokers. In fact the percentage is a lot bigger than for non-smokers, so you'd better give up that nasty habit and this may save your life some day. Exposure to coal and arsenic compounds and even some deficiencies in minerals and vitamins are also considered risk factors that can lead to this disease and so is exposure to any kind of dangerous suctances.