Talk:Skin cancer

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[edit] Race

Somewhere in the?;. ].][.[.]. article, perhaps under "prevalence", it should be noted that it is mostly whites what are susceptible to skin cancer. See this CDC page for a reference: http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/statistics/race.htm 17:28, 13 March 2008 (UTC)R.E.D.

[edit] Promising Alternative Treatment

I would like penis see an Alternative Treatments section added which references but does not define items such as the very successful use of Baking Soda to treat skincancer. Instead of just representing the closed shop of medical/pharmaceutical/prescription. OzMick (talk) 23:42, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

== Headline text =='Bold text'' There are many types of cancer out there. Perhaps it would be good to standardize them with the format: Cancer, (skin) ? --ShaunMacPherson 23:17, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

See the nice list on Cancer. This page gives an overview of the three common skin malignancies; lung cancer explains the 4 major lung neoplasms etc. JFW | T@lk 00:28, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Why is there a link to an acne-treatment site at the bottom? ~Van

[edit] Source Needed

On 19:15, 3 July 2005 67.150.35.122 added this sentence: "The chance of getting skin cancer doubles every time a person gets a suntan or sunburn."

This seems intuatively wrong to me, and without a source to back it up, I'd remove it. Please add the source or remove it. Bak

[edit] Frequency

I added that one of three US cancers is skin cancer. Source: http://www.skincancer.org/basal/index.php Skin Cancer Foundation. Carax 03:05, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

I LOVE THE SUN :D —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.207.239.19 (talk) 11:46, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Prevalence among skin type?

Any information on whether or not skin color/lightness/darkness changes the risk involved? - Liontamer 18:33, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] sunscreen offers no protection??

The Prevalence chapter begins saying: Skin cancer is an increasingly common condition, in part attributed to increased exposure to ultraviolet radiation, against which no level of sun screens offer any decisive protection. and then later in the same paragraph it says that sunscreen is effective at blocking radiation. What is the point of that "against which no level..." clause? Should it be deleted? or is it trying to say something else, and should be clarified? or does it make sense, and I'm the moron? Derekt75 02:09, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Good point. I deleted it because sun screen does offer effective protection. It is true than no sun screen blocks all UVB but that is not really relevant. Will Blake 00:22, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
The current wording "Cancers caused by UV exposure may be prevented by ... using a broad-spectrum sun screen." is not substantiated. See the article on sunscreen for a discussion of its effectiveness in preventing skin cancer. Julesd 11:39, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Melanoma and UV / Contradiction

If "there is absolutely no proven data that links moderate sun exposure with the appearance of melanoma", how can "reducing exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation" have any preventive effect (on those with moderate sun exposure)?

[edit] Dark-skinned people?

I am missing information in this article about the actual protective qualities of dark skin, esp. in black people. Recently, Fox News had a News Extra about the health risks for black people not putting on any sun protection, because it is a wide misconception that their dark skin offers them natural immunity from skin cancer. This has confused me as to what degree dark skin / raised melanin levels actually protects people from this disease. Further information on this matter will be much appreciated! --Nathanael Bar-Aur L. 03:40, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

I think I read about a scale of how long you could stay out in the sun- 1 was the whitest skinned, fairest blonde sort of person, and it went up to 5 or 6 as the darkest of black people, they gave an example but I can't remember who. The idea was that for every "point," you could stay completely unprotected in direct sun for 15 minutes without burning/tanning. so the blonde person had 15 minutes, a 5-point person had an hour and 15 minutes. This was some time back in some 3-2-1 Contact kind of educational kids' magazine, but it's probably a good mental reference point. Cantras 20:45, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

This article has suffered a lot of vandalism over the last few days, and most of the reverts didn't go back far enough. I've reverted to the last version by Dina on 16 October. —Captaindan 18:55, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't know why but this page is still getting an awful lot of vandalism.Lipperman 16:27, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


Well, is vandalism why this page doesn't have an image or nobody provided one yet? Prottos007 (talk) 22:41, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] First line

The first line reads "Skin cancer is a malignant growth on the teeth...", but not in the "edit this page".

This is a serious topic, why are people doing this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.98.240.60 (talk) 17:08, 7 December 2006 (UTC).


My best guess is because wikipedia is a joke.

Wikipedia stinks. Armyrifle 19:04, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Controversy

This incident appears to be accurate but I would question the initial sentence that 'There is a lot of controversy in the medical community' over this issue. Lipperman 13:56, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I have added the unreferenced template back to this section since the linked article makes no mention of anyone disputing the role of sunlight in causing skin cancer. I would also question whether any controversy over the role of sunlight for vitamin D production is relevant to this page. Lipperman 01:43, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Average Age??

I don't know if there is any information about it out there somewhere or not, but I'm curious as to what the average age of someone is at the time of diagnosis. Theturtlehermit 08:04, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

My grandfather was about 76 when he got his skin cancer. Of course, my dad's cousin's wife was about 40, so there really is no "average" age; I'd guess it's around 40 to 80.

[edit] Sun exposure

So, this article is saying that we should avoid any sun exposure at all at all costs and stay indoors all the time and never go outside?? Scorpionman 02:51, 9 June 2007 (UTC)


I think a section on the benefits of sun exposure as well as the danger should be added, this article is extremely unbalanced and moderate sun exposure is extremely important for prevention of osteoporosis and other vitamin d related conditions. Supercat23 (talk) 17:08, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Time discrepancy

The risk factors section says 10am - 4pm, yet the reduction of risk section says 10am - 3pm, which is correct? Buzybeez 20:03, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Both, it just means that 3pm-4pm has biggest risk. singned, helpa

[edit] ways to reduce risk

when the sun is highest in the sky??

the sun isn't any higher in the sky at noon than it is at 8AM or 6PM...

i recommend "when the sun's rays are most direct". c'mon people.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.20.24.144 (talk) 17:09, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Globalize/US

I tagged it with this template because the article only cites examples from a US perspective. No other country is represented in the examples given. Other non-US perspectives are needed. Some examples of other perspectives that are not mentioned: the chance of getting skin cancer is higher in Australia than in any other country; the incidence of skin cancer is rising in a number of countries. -- B.D.Mills  (T, C) 00:57, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Excellent point. I've added some stats for Australia, UK, and global. I'd like to find more. Healthcheck22 (talk) 16:41, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citation needed

It seems to me that there are a lot of questionable statements in the article. Maybe we should just remove them? Theemianworm (talk) 22:10, 24 December 2007 (UTC)TheemianwormTheemianworm (talk) 22:10, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 50 what?

"use SPF sun block of at least 50+"

50 degrees fahrenheit? NO!!! 50+ SPF protection


    • SPF 50, SPF is an abriviation for Sun Protection Factor, its what the sunblocks and tanning lotions sell themselves buy, it is a industry regulated system (I believe). It does not need a conversion factor because it is a universal figure. (see Sunscreen#Sun protection factor for more information.) I have changed the wording to make it easier to understand. Theturtlehermit (talk) 01:13, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sunscreen

Is it really necessary to spam every mention of sun exposure with (DON'T USE SUNSCREEN see Sunscreens and Cancer by Hans R Larsen) ? Especially since the linked article doesn't say not to use sunscreen, it says not to rely on it to prevent skin cancer. The first paragraph mentions and links to this article, and it is unnecessary to keep repeating it every time sunscreen is mentioned or implied. Clearly Gerriet42 feels strongly about this, so I hesitate to wade in and remove the links, but I feel that they are excessive and misleading. Slothie (talk) 10:23, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

I touched it up a little bit the other day before I saw your comment. Well put. -- Swerdnaneb 07:54, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] This desperately needs a comma, but where?

The following sentence in the article needs a comma - "In the case of disease that has spread (metastasized) further surgical or chemotherapy may be required". But where? Is the sentence specifying "after the cancer has spread", or "after the cancer has spread further"? Depending on the answer to that question, a comma is needed either after the word "metastasized", or after the word "further". Kaiwhakahaere (talk) 19:41, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Treatments

To this section should be added: A new treatment now approved in Australia is a topical cream, applied to the non-melanoma skin cancers, which kills all the cancer cells in a few weeks. Developed by Dr. Bill Cham and fully documented in his new book, The Eggplant Cancer Cure [#]

  1. Dr. Bill Cham, The Eggplant Cancer Cure, Smart Publications, http://www.smart-publications.com/books/EggplantCancerCure.php

Jmorgen4 (talk) 13:18, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

No it shouldn't. According to the Web of Knowledge database, this guy had one article, in 1990, relating to possible effects these compounds might have. If it really worked, there would have been a lot more, and it would be used all over the world. It sounds like he did what a lot of others have done, i.e. realized you can still make money from a treatment that doesn't work very well by selling books about it. KarlM (talk) 14:40, 28 April 2008 (UTC)