In summer, often synonymous with sun exposure, dermatologists ask for “self -exposure” of the skin. During the prevention and awareness of the detection directed for organized skin cancer in early June, the National Union of Dermatologists-Snakes (SNDV) warns against risks related to sun exposure and the signs they must alert.
The league against cancer has launched its prevention campaign asking not to “toast” its skin in the sun this week. “We are not sausages,” summarizes the association.
Behind this campaign with a humorous tone there is a fairly disturbing reality. Because the number of new cases of skin cancer has more than tripled in the last thirty years, the National Cancer Institute has. Every year, between 141,200 and 243,500 cases of skin cancer are diagnosed in France, according to Public Health France.
However, these skin cancers can be detected early. And certain prevention gestures applied from childhood can help protect themselves. Here are the signs to see:
• A strange beauty grain
It is one of the first signs that must alert: a grain of beauty that changes or whose appearance seems unusual. “We should not worry as soon as a new mole appears,” warns Catherine Olivérès-Ghouti, dermatologist and venerologist, interviewed by BFMTV.com. “On the other hand, if it does not resemble others or if a mole changes appearance, it must consult.”
Because the risk is melanoma. It represents 10% of leather cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute. “They can appear in a healthy skin (70 to 80% of cases) or the result of the malignant transformation of a nevus (or beauty grain, editor’s note).” As a reminder, melanoma is the most dangerous skin cancer, with a strong propensity to metastasis.
This is one of the cancers whose impact and mortality have increased significantly for forty years. About 17,922 new cases of skin melanomas were thus diagnosed in 2023. But as the National Institute of Cancer Points, “skin melanoma is a good prognosis if detected early.”
The SNDV also offers a mnemonic medium to monitor its beauty grains, the method ABCDE.
- A for asymmetry: A grain of non -round or oval beauty that has colors and reliefs that are not distributed regularly around its center.
- B for edges: The edges of the beauty grain are irregular and seem to be crushed or poorly delimited.
- C by color: The color of the beauty grain loses its homogeneity.
- D for diameter: The size of the beauty grain increases (melanoma usually has a size larger than 6 mm).
- Finally e for evolution: A quick change in size, shape, color or thickness.
But the National Union of Dermatologists-Verologists specifies that the manifestation of one or more of these signs does not necessarily mean the presence of melanoma, but justifies request medical advice.
• A button that does not go
“Carcinoma often begins with what we take for a small button that does not cure and hangs out,” warns Catherine Olivérès-Ghouti, also a member of the SNDV. “However, a button that does not go in eight days, is not normal.”
There are two types of carcinomas: basal cell carcinoma, the most common (70% of skin cancers) and the least serious. This cancer does not put and its complete elimination ensures the healing of the patient, indicates the National Cancer Institute. And epidermoid carcinoma: it is more rare (20 %) but more aggressive with the ability to invade lymph nodes and metastate.
“If a skin injury persists, swells or deflates, it becomes red or bleeding, especially in areas that have been exposed to the sun, such as the face, ears, the scalp for bald men, but also on the back, you have to consult,” warns Catherine Olivérès-Ghouti.
Especially because at the origin of certain carcinomas, this dermatologist often detects an actinic keratosis, a precautionary contour caused by prolonged exposure to the sun. “Actinic keratosis, at first, is a very small injury, is large as a pencil tip, is a small crunchy button,” he explains.
Actinic keratosis evocative sign: to the touch, produces a sensation similar to that of sandpaper, rough and sometimes painful. “It is very well with liquid nitrogen, but we should not wait. An actinic keratosis can renew in six months.”
• Prolonged exposure to the Sun during childhood
This is the first risk factor for skin cancer: sun exposure. The World Health Organization (WHO) mentions this: Excessive sun exposure in children and adolescents leads to a higher risk of skin cancer in adulthood.
“Until 15 years, it is imperative to protect children a lot,” insists the dermatologist Catherine Olivérès-Ghouti. She explains that her skin is more fragile and thinner than that of adults. “And up to 3 years, without sun,” he said. Because a solar burn represents DNA lesions.
However, skin repair capacity, which is called Sun Capital in everyday language, is limited. The SNDV also remembers that there is no “healthy” or “progressive” tan. “No exposure to UV is safe.”
Remember that tan is a skin defense mechanism, As the Ministry of Economy writes on a page dedicated to solar creams, which is activated in the face of UV attacks. “Therefore, tanned skin means that DNA has been altered by UV and is not a guarantee of good health.”
• Brown tasks
Another sign of a solar capital began: the lentigo, these brown points that appear in the areas very exposed to UV radiation. “This means that the skin has been burned by the sun and that it will not be repaired,” warns Catherine Olivérès-Ghouti. If pollution is also involved in the appearance of these tasks, it is even more necessary to protect from the sun. And not only with sunscreen.
“The solar screens should not be used to spend more time in the sun,” says WHO.
The other SNDV warning is the tan cabins. The union thus denounces the “myths” around the sun and the tan that, according to him, feed “risky behaviors.” Two out of ten French believe that artificial UVs make it possible to “prepare their skin” before summer and reduce the risk of solar burns, according to an Ipsos survey for the SNDV made in 2023.
It is not. On the contrary: Artificial UVs are classified as carcinogenic by the International Cancer Research Center (CIR), alerts the Ministry of Health. “The CIRD has estimated that the risk of developing melanoma increases by 60% for people who have made the first exposure to artificial UV before the age of 30 (…) In addition, the effects of exposure to artificial and natural UVs are cumulative and increase the risk of developing skin cancer.”
• Clear skin “burns faster”
It is a fact: people with a clear phototype, that is, with a clear skin, need to protect more than UV. “Your skin burns faster,” summarizes Catherine Olivérès-Ghouti. However, in practice, this is not always the case. According to the same Ipsos survey, only one third of people who have a clear phototype, many beauty grains or suffered solar burns in childhood are effectively protected. A more global lack of protection: in the general population, there are more than seven French and French French people who declare that they are not systematically protected from the sun.
For Catherine Olivérès -Ghouti, the best protection remains to avoid the sun between noon and the 4 pm – the higher the sun in the sky, the greater the level of UV radiation. “From noon, a total screen is ineffective,” Barre. A particular inefficiency linked to an insufficient application. “The protection is calculated for 2 mg of cream/cm2. This represents a cream golf ball for each application, a tube per day.”
“We are far from that when only a tube for the whole family is used during the holidays.”
It favors the shadow, therefore, but under a roof. “If it is not an anti-UV parasol, an average parasol protects moderately.” And if the sun is inevitable, wear cover clothes and a wide hat to protect your ears and neck. In the absence of clothing, opt for a sunscreen with high sun protection (FPS) that protects against UVB and “also verify the presence of the grape logo,” advises the general competition of competition, consumption and repression of fraud.
“Apply it at least twenty minutes before the exhibition so that the cream has time to penetrate,” continues Catherine Olivérès-Ghouti, goes back every two hours, after each swimming and does not reuse the tube of the previous year that passed the vacations to the sun.
“Awareness is needed,” the dermatologist persists. “Leather cancer, that not only touches others.” Cancers left to almost 2,000 people dead in 2023. “However, it can easily reduce the risks.”
Source: BFM TV
