Meteorologists have already warned: this summer is going to be one of the hottest in 30 years. Last year we experienced firsthand the ravages of high temperatures (it was the hottest summer in Spain and in Europe for as long as there are records). The sun is a greater threat every day: Ultraviolet radiation already reaches dangerous levels in our country and it should be remembered in this World Skin Cancer Day.
According to data from the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (AEDV), In Spain the incidence of skin cancer has increased by 40% in the last four years -more than 78,000 new cases are diagnosed annually-, despite the fact that it is highly preventable: with basic prevention measures, more than 95% of cases could be avoided. The Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) estimates that by 2023, 8,049 people will be diagnosed with skin melanoma.
The incidence for basal cell carcinoma is about 120 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, about 40 per 100,000 in the case of squamous cell carcinomas, and in melanoma the figure is lower: 12 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, although it is estimated that by 2040 melanomathe most aggressive and with the worst prognosis, will become the second tumor in global incidence and the first in incidence in malesahead of colon and lung.
How is each one of them? He basal cell or basal cell carcinoma is the most frequent (represents about 20-30% of all skin cancers in the world). “It does not sound familiar to the population because it does not usually kill. It is a type of tumor that generally grows very slowly and is detected because it rubs and bleeds, because a wound does not heal, there is something that does not look like the rest .. .”, explained Eduardo Nagore, dermatologist and clinical chief of the Valencian Institute of Oncology (IVO), to this newspaper at the 50th AEDV Congress, held in mid-May in Santiago de Compostela
Second in frequency is the squamous cell carcinomaalso know as epidermoid or squamous cell carcinoma. “While the basal cell can be seen in relatively young people, the epidermoid is very typical of older people. All cancers increase with age, but the epidermoid is closely related to the amount of accumulated sun, the cumulative lifetime ultraviolet radiation damage. It is very typical in people who work in agriculture or constructionfor example, and they have premalignant lesions that can be treated, which are actinic keratoses from chronic radiation exposure, and the fast-growing tumor itself.”