SKIN CARE: Cancer is our most powerful enemy

What causes cancer?  For that matter, what is cancer?  Those are questions that baffled people for centuries, but the answers are largely known now.  This is a significant advantage, because cancer is our most powerful enemy, with the exception of heart disease.

SO HOW DO we prevent skin cancer? Since we know that ultraviolet light damages our DNA, and we know that the DNA controls the Hedgehog system, the best way to keep from getting skin cancer is to protect the skin as much as we can from ultraviolet light.

It kills more Americans than stroke, pneumonia, accidents and Alzheimer’s disease.

Since one of my areas of expertise is identifying and treating skin cancers, I have a unique perspective on what cancer is, and what it does. I hope this discussion will give you insight into how to avoid developing skin cancer, and provide a basis for understanding why cancer acts the way it does.

Noncancerous Skin Cells

Let’s start with noncancerous skin cells.  Most of the time, a normal skin cell lies relatively dormant, not really doing much of anything.  It serves as a barrier, keeping outside forces such as bacteria, viruses, chemicals and traumatizing objects from harming the tissues underneath.  It protects our inner, delicate world.

The skin cell is programmed by its DNA, the software that runs the cell, to not divide (and thus reproduce itself) unless it is signaled to do so. Also, the skin cell is designed to stay in close contact with its surrounding cells, much like kindergartners in a museum might hold hands as they walk, so as not to lose their place.

Roughly every 28 days, the skin cells are signaled to divide, and to replace those cells that are lost through the usual wear and tear of daily life.  By dividing every 28 days, the skin cells don’t exceed what the skin needs to remain as an intact barrier, and everything works the way it is supposed to.

If necessary, such as in the case of injury, the body can signal the skin cells to reproduce more quickly, but for the most part, they remain quiet, only reproducing every 28 days.

So that’s the life of a skin cell.  Stay in place, don’t bother your neighbors and don’t do anything unless you are told to do so.  Once again, sort of like a kindergartner.

Basal Cell Carcinoma

What happens, then, in the case of skin cancer?  In the case of basal cell carcinoma, the most common of skin cancers, the process is as follows:

AVOIDANCE OF sunlight when the ultraviolet light is at its most intense, such as midday is a smart strategy, as is using sun protective clothing and last, but not least, wearing ultraviolet blocking sunscreen that filters out the most damaging rays.

Before we start, though, there is something you need to know, to make sense of this whole matter. There is a system that regulates not only where skin cells develop, but also how they behave (especially through the cell replication process of division) called, oddly enough, the Hedgehog system.

The Hedgehog system, like any good kindergarten teacher, tells its charges exactly how to behave.  It tells the cells when to divide, where to divide, and, most importantly, when to stop.

Now, picture yourself on Satellite Beach.  You are out for a day with the family, perhaps watching a rocket launch, and you forgot your sunscreen.  Rather than dive under an umbrella, you think to yourself, “Ah, it’s not that long.  I’ll be OK for a short while.”

So you walk around, maybe play a little Frisbee, and enjoy yourself.  While you are out, though, your pasty white skin is being bombarded with ultraviolet radiation, and, unlucky you, one of the millions of ultraviolet rays that happen to hit you hits right in the one place you really wish it didn’t – in the gene that controls the Hedgehog system. It causes a mutation, which leads to a dysfunctional control system.

When something goes awry with the Hedgehog system, chaos ensues.  A single cell divides in an uncontrolled fashion.  Both of the “daughter cells” also divide without the benefit of the Hedgehog guidance, and the process continues so one cell becomes two, then four, then eight uncontrolled cells, and so on.

This continues unabated, until this group of cells – the cancer – is stopped either by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or, rarely, by the body’s own immune system.

Additionally, as the rampant reproduction of cells is occurring, blood vessels are signaled to grow around the new cells to nourish the growing population of cells.  This only encourages more growth and soon a tiny spot grows into a tumor, which, in the case of skin cancer, becomes visible.

AVOIDANCE OF sunlight when the ultraviolet light is at its most intense, such as midday is a smart strategy, as is using sun protective clothing and last, but not least, wearing ultraviolet blocking sunscreen that filters out the most damaging rays.

Since the Hedgehog system still hasn’t told the rapidly dividing cells to stop reproducing (remember, it is damaged from that stray ultraviolet ray and therefore can’t direct the cell as to what to do), cells continue to divide, the tumor continues to grow, and the new, cancerous cells start to push the other normal cells out of the way.

Since a basal cell carcinoma generally does not spread to distant sites in the body (metastasize), it simply pushes the other normal cells out of the way until, in the worst case scenario, it erodes into a vital structure, such as the nasal passage, the skull, or the orbit of the eye.

So that’s really what cancer is.  It is the uncontrolled reproduction of cells that continue to divide, pushing and displacing normal cells.  Even though we are talking about basal cell cancer, this concept applies to all cancers.

How Do We Prevent Skin Cancer?

If the cancer cells interfere with a critical function of the body, such as breathing in the case of lung cancer or processing food in the case of colon cancer, we die.  In the case of basal cell carcinomas, the tumors displace and erode normal structures of the body surface, resulting in disfigurement and, rarely, death.

So how do we prevent skin cancer?  Since we know that ultraviolet light damages our DNA, and we know that the DNA controls the Hedgehog system, the best way to keep from getting skin cancer is to protect the skin as much as we can from ultraviolet light.

Avoidance of sunlight when the ultraviolet light is at its most intense, such as midday is a smart strategy, as is using sun protective clothing and last, but not least, wearing ultraviolet blocking sunscreen that filters out the most damaging rays.  That will protect your Hedgehog, and in turn, your Hedgehog will take care of you!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Bishop attended Wright State University medical school and then served nine years in the Air Force as a flight surgeon. An affiliate of MIMA, he specializes in cosmetic and surgical dermatology, including Mohs Micrographic Surgery, and non-surgical rejuvenation of the face. You may call Dr. Bishop at 321-751-9097.

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