Skin Cancer Institute Director: Don't fry

from USA TODAY coverage (Friday May 27, 2011):

The Friday before Memorial Day is Don't Fry Day, and for much of the country, the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention's awareness day serves as a timely reminder: Don't forget to pack your sunscreen along with the swimsuits, fishing poles and other accoutrements of outdoor summer fun.
Experts advise applying sunscreen often throughout the day if you spend time outdoors.
According to Dr. Lee Cranmer, an oncologist with the Arizona Cancer Center's Skin Cancer Institute at the University of Arizona, the disease accounts for almost half of all cancers in the United States, the American Cancer Society says. Most, at an estimated 2 million-plus new cases each year, are basal-cell and squamous-cell skin cancers.
These non-melanomas, as they're called, are so common and treatable that most cancer registries don't record the numbers, instead relegating them to the footnote "excluding skin cancer" on their lists of the top 10 cancers.
Melanoma gets closer scrutiny. The most dangerous type of skin cancer, it is diagnosed in more than 68,000 people a year, the Cancer Society says, earning a nod of its own on lists.
Melanoma is No. 8 of the 10 most common cancers, according to a U.S. Cancer Statistics report released in 2010 with data from 2007, the most recent available. Data came from federal cancer registries.
Nationwide, incidence of melanoma is up, from 15.1 cases per 100,000 people in 1999 to 18.7 in 2007, the report says.
Sue Royden, 52, a Phoenix native was diagnosed with it in March — a "freckle" on the bottom of her foot — and she now wonders if afternoons reading at the beach stretched out on her stomach are to blame. Who would think to put sunscreen on your soles?
"I've become much more aware," she said, "and it's my mission now to tell people to check the palms of their hands and the bottoms of their feet."
Melanoma is the most common cancer in adults 25 to 29 years old.
"One big misconception is that if you're young, you won't get skin cancer," Pehoushek said Dr. James Pehoushek, the dermatologist who diagnosed Royden. "But no one is immune."
Skin cancers often can be prevented or treated successfully more than 99% of the time if caught early. Even for potentially deadly melanoma, 85% to 90% of cases can be cured, helped by early identification and surgery.
Most skin cancers are caused by ultraviolet exposure from the sun or tanning beds, which are relatively simple to limit. Genetics can play a role, too.
In public talks, Cranmer, director of the Skin Cancer Institute's melanoma/sarcoma program, likes to share two photos that illustrate a primary culprit behind the disease's rise.
The first, taken in the 1930s, shows people at the beach in long dresses, long-sleeved shirts and long pants. Very little skin is exposed. In the other, from the 1980s, beachgoers dressed in skimpy swimsuits soak up the rays.
"There has been a change in our relationship with the sun," Cranmer said. But, luckily for lovers of the outdoors, "we have identified the fountain of youth, and we are bottling it and selling it at a very reasonable price. It's called sunscreen."
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