Essay --

Skin Cancer My topic has to do with the skin because it is about skin cancer which, obviously, occurs on the skin .Skin cancer is an abnormal and somewhat rapid growth of skin cells. Often occurs in areas of the skin that is exposed to the sun. UV rays from the sun can cause mutations to the cells we learned about such as the basal cell, squamous cell, and melanoma. In the United States the most common form of cancer is probably skin cancer. About 3.5 million cases of basal and squamous cell skin cancer are recorded each year in the United States alone. There are three major types of skin cancer. Those would be basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma. Basal and squamous cell cancers are set apart from the more dangerous and serious type of cancer which would be melanoma. The two got their names because they usually start in the basal cells or squamous cells. â€Å"Most basal and squamous cell cancers develop on sun-exposed areas of the skin, like the face, ear, neck, lips, and the backs of the hands. Depending on the type, they can be fast or slow growing, but they rarely spread to other parts of the body.† (ACS) Because they don’t usually spread to other parts of the body, basal and squamous cell cancers are considered less dangerous compared to the melanoma. As of 2013 there have been 76,600 cases of melanoma and causes more than 9,000 of the 12,000 skin cancer deaths each year. Like most or all skin cancer melanoma is almost always curable in its early stages. Basal cell cancers are strange, uncontrolled growths that occur on the outermost layer of the epidermis. This type of cancer often looks like red patches, open sores, shiny bumps, or scars. They can become highly disfigured if they are all... ...y, and biological therapy. Freezing is when the doctor freezes the cancer cells using liquid nitrogen; the dead tissue will come off when it thaws. Excisional is when the doctor cuts off the cancerous tissue. Laser therapy uses an intense beam of light to break down and destroy growths without heavily damaging the surrounding tissues. Mohs surgery is for larger, more difficult cancers. The doctor removes the skin growth layer by layer and examines each one until none of the growth remains. Radiation therapy is used when doctors are unable to perform surgeries. Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill the cancer cells. If the cancer is at the top layer then creams would be used but if it is deeper down then drugs could be injected into the blood stream through veins. Biological therapy uses biological treatments to stimulate the immune system to kill the cancer cells.