Skin Cancer
Skin cancers are cells that become abnormal and multiply at a very fast rate that cannot be stopped by the immune system. Tumours are created when these cells are shoved into a sack which becomes a tumour. These tumors can be benign which means that a tumour is non cancerous or malignant which means that a tumour is cancerous.
Skin cancer occurs when a skin cell or skin cells get damaged, this is usually from too much sun exposure.
The three main types of skin cancer include;
Melanoma - Melanoma tends to occur in parts of the body that have had too much exposure to the sun but on rare occasions can occur on parts of the body that do not see the sun. In Australia in 2015, 1520 deaths occured due to melanoma (Cancer Council Australia - Skin Cancer - What is skin cancer?).
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) - Accounts for about 70% of non-melanoma skin …show more content…
By the age of 70 two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer. The tendency for men to develop non-melanoma skin cancer is twice as likely compared to women, this is most likely due to the large portion of male tradespeople who spend many days in the sun. Excluding non-melanoma skin cancers (Such as BCC and SCC), melanoma is the third most common cancer developed in Australians. 13,134 Australians were diagnosed with melanoma in 2014. Every year in Australia 80% of all new incidences of cancers are skin cancers, 1 million patients go to GP’s for a consultation regarding skin cancer. In Australia, the rate of skin cancer is one of the highest in the world, three times the rate of Canada, the US, and the UK. These statistics have been provided by Cancer Council Australia (Cancer Council Australia - Skin Cancer - What is skin