Question:
I am 59 years old. As a child, I was raised mostly in Miami, FL, during a
time when no one ever heard of sunscreens. All there was back then were
worthless suntan lotions that offered nearly zero protection. Around 95%
of my sun exposure occurred in my first 12 years of life. Of the
remaining 5%, perhaps 95% of that occurred in the next 10 years. In the
last 37 years, believe me, I avoided the sun like a plague and received no
more than one or two light tans in all that time. However, I am still
plagued with an unending stream of skin cancers (one melanoma, 5 squamous
cell and perhaps 100 basal cell skin cancers).
From what I understand about the anatomy of the skin, skin cells have a
rather short life expectancy. Unlike neurons or muscle cells, which live
for the lifetime of the person, skin cells only survive a few months
before being pushed up from the dermis to the epidermis where they die and
from which they are eventually shed. However, the skin cancers occur from
10 to 50 years after a cell is damaged, years, if not decades after that
cell dies. It is not the damaged cell that becomes cancerous, rather it
is that cells distant descendant.
Therefore, there must be one or more additional factors that stimulates
the distant descendant of a damaged cell that causes it to become
malignant. It may be a hormone, an enzyme, something in the diet, or
whatever. I don't know what it is, but something must trigger the
transformation of the cell into a cancer cell. The sun exposure is the
first trigger, there must be an additional one decades later without which
a damaged cell would never become cancerous. After all, even if a cell
sticks around for that 50 years, there must still be a trigger to make it
malignant. Also, consider that there are many cases of cells partially
changing over the course of time with each generation changing more than
the last. For instance, normal squamish cells become AK cells and a
couple of years later become squamish cell skin cancer.
Every time I asked my dermatologists as to what I can do to prevent
further skin cancers, all I hear from them is the tired old litany of
"keep out of the sun... keep out of the sun." I've been doing that for
decades. It simply does not work. There has to be some way of blocking the
transformation from a healthy, but damaged, cell into a malignant cell.
Perhaps it is a drug, perhaps it is a vitamin, perhaps it is a hormone. If
there is something that triggers a cancer after half a century, there must
be something that blocks the trigger. I am sick and tired of medical
advice that is utterly worthless. I need answers, not hackneyed old
sayings that dermatologists love to spout.
Does anyone know of any research in that direction?
There HAS to be an answer. ...somewhere ...but where?
I am sick and tired of being a charter member of the surgery of the month
club. Believe me it is no fun... about as much fun as a root canal.
Liquid nitrogen, C and D, Mohs Surgery, etc. There has to be a better
way. Sometimes I get so many skin cancer surgeries that the last thing I
want to do is to see the dermatologist. Sometimes I am more fearful of
them than dentists.
By the way, I have had all three kinds of skin cancer.
Answer:
'm in the same situation as you and now average 60 days or less
between dermatologist appts. I haven't had any melanomas yet but have
had many squamous, quite a few basals and many hundreds of
cryrosurgeries and AKs.
About 3 years ago I began using Solaraze ointment (topical diclofenac)
regularly on my arms and legs and anywhere else with lots of AKs. This
gradually reduced the number of skin cancers and AKs. I am also using
Aldara now to treat suspicious AKs and tiny skin cancers. Solaraze has
zero side effects except for high cost. Aldara is also expensive but
works pretty well. If you put Aldara on 2 identical looking AKs, one
might have little or no reaction and if the other had malignant cells,
it would flare up and get very red (a good thing) and then gradually
slough off after 6-8 weeks of application. The Solaraze is a long term
treatment used twice daily. Some AKs need many months of treatment with
Solaraze while others will fall off in 2 weeks or so. So far I haven't
used the Aldara on anything over 8 weeks where it didn't either cure
the spot or convince me it needed professional attention. Solaraze will
slow or stop small cancers from growing but will not cure them. Aldara
has the potential to cure small cancers.
You will probably need prescription insurance if you intend to use
either of these medicines regularly. I go through well over a thousand
bucks a year of Solaraze and will probably use that much Aldara this
year. Write me a private email if you have any further questions.
quijibored
