Cancer Commentary - Caring About Cancer

Why Beauty Blogger Christina Jones is Afraid of the Sun and Loves Sunscreen

by Gloria Gamat on January 18th, 2007

Christina Jones of e-Beauty Daily is battling with a type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma (BCC).

According to the Skin Cancer Foundation:

Basal cell carcinoma can usually be diagnosed with a simple biopsy and is fairly easy to treat when detected early. However, 5 to 10 percent of BCCs can be resistant to treatment or locally aggressive, eating away at the skin around then, sometimes even into bone and cartilage.

When not treated quickly, they can be difficult to eliminate. Fortunately, however, this is a cancer that has an extremely low rate of metastasis, and although it can result in scars and disfigurement, it is not usually life-threatening.

Christina made a rather humorous account of how she convinced her doctor (a general practitioner) to take out the pencil eraser growth on her nose for biopsy. Upon diagnosis she was told that she has a huge chance of developing the tumor again in 5 years. It has been two years, so far so good, Christina said.

Chronic exposure to the sun is the cause for most cases of basal cell carcinoma and the tumors usually would sprout on the face, ears, neck, scalp, shoulders, and back. People who are most frequently outdoors (those who work outdoors for example) and are fair skinned are more susceptible.

That’s right Christina you have huge reason to be afraid of the sun and love sunscreens.

Heck I am brown and afraid of the sun too. Like you I would rather go to the beach at early morning and late afternoon. Gone are my childhood days of whole day frolic under the sun.

However, I never got the hang of using sunscreens and the beach around here is just 10 minutes away. So that’s something I can learn from you I guess.

Read Christina’s full account of her skin cancer.

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POSTED IN: Skin cancer