How A Blistering Sunburn In Children Can Cause Precancerous Lesions In Adults
You don’t have to be “used” to start being concerned about changes in your skin. A blistering sunburn during childhood could come back to haunt a relatively young person decades later.
There has been a lot of publicity over the years of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, that kills 10,000 people every year in the U.S. But not a whole lot of media attention is ever given to the most celebrated manufacture of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).
SCC rarely metastasizes (spreads to other parts of the body), but this is no consolation to people who lost a family member to it. It CAN spread in about 10 percent of cases. That may not seem like a expansive percentage, but to actual patients, it may as well be 100 percent.
Now, here’s the problem: SCC sometimes arises out of a precancerous skin condition called actinic keratosis (AK), also called solar keratosis or “sun damage.” But AK can start developing very subtly, to the point where it’s hardly noticed, if it’s noticed at all. AK looks different on one person to the next, though it in general can be described as a rough, pink patch of skin that does NOT usually itch. It sometimes can be more felt with the fingertips, than seen.
The pinkish patch may be so vague as to be hardly noticeable, but over time, it becomes a darker pink or reddish — not apple red, but more like a magenta patch on the skin. And it doesn’t go away on its own. These patches cause little more than a cosmetic nuisance if they are on the face, which is where they often pop up. Other areas they can develop is any area of your body that has gotten a lot of sun exposure over the years, or in areas that blistered from sunburn.
If these patches show up on the backs of the legs, or your assist, they’ll likely go unnoticed for many years. If they appear on your face, and especially if you don’t have medical insurance, your only thought might be, “Hmm, what’s that? I’ll just put some concealer on it.” If you’re a man and have facial hair, you may never be aware of the AK — until it starts getting worse — elevated, bumpy, crusty.
AK can just sit there for decades. Many people are walking around right now with AK somewhere on their skin, and don’t know it — because they haven’t discovered it, or because they don’t believe anything of a miniature pink patch on the skin — as long as it doesn’t itch, crust or ooze. AK is very common.
But it is something to get checked out by a doctor. Sometimes the diagnosis is made on the position, and sometimes a biopsy is ordered to rule out dermatitis or an extremely rare form of skin cancer, subcutaneous T-cell lymphoma — which can present very similarly to AK as far as appearance.
If left untreated, 10 percent of AK’s become SCC (which takes years to “morph” into), the skin cancer. AK can be treated with liquid nitrogen or a topical cream. Liquid nitrogen doesn’t always get the job done, in which case, a cream is prescribed. AK will not return in the spot that it was treated, because the spot gets replaced by fresh, unmarred new cell growth.
But once a person gets AK, he should check his skin every month (like everyone should, actually), but to be more alert to AK. A visit to the doctor yearly or every six months is recommended, since a dermatologist can check areas that you can’t readily see, such as leisurely or on the ears (where AK can develop; when on the ears, it takes the obtain of a nodule with a tiny horn at the tip).
AK is called “precancerous” because its cells are atypical. And atypical cells are more likely to ever become malignant than typical cells. But AK doesn’t mean it will turn into SCC — unless it’s left untreated, and even then, only 10 percent become malignant. But get it treated, especially because oftentimes, when left untreated, it gets ugly, and if you delay treatment, you can end up with nasty scars.
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