Fifty Plus (50+) - skin cancer

We are riding our bikes and out in the sun quit a bit and I thought I would pass this on. I go to the dermatologist every 6 months and he usually finds something on me. This past visit he found some pre cancer and caught it in time. I worked outside all my life, but he found the cancer in the middle of my chest, where it's not exposed that much. So if you guys are getting up there in age or going to nudist colonies you may want to add the dermatologist to your check ups.

George, you've got a good plan getting checked every 6 months. Thanks for the reminder.

I help fund my dermatologist's vacations to France so he can watch the Tour de France each year. Every 6 months I go in, and get sh#t frozen off me and we talk bikes and he sometimes takes me back to his office and shows me his latest riding vacation pictures...I look forward to the visits; the talking, not the freezing part!

I go once a year to get checked over. I've had several basal cell cancers removed and one squamous cell.
I use sunblock with an spf of 60 on my face, 45 on limbs and hands.
Sometimes the doc will burn something off with liquid nitrogen, no freezing. That's fun.

I had a spot taken off my ear last year with liquid nitrogen, and I'm pretty sure it was freezing, not burning.

1 tumor removed from deep inside the upper lip. So deep in fact that they ended up simply taking a pie slice out of the lip and sewing it back together.....:notamused:

The results of all those years of standing in the middle of a field of asphault playing with fast cars.

Most folks don't believe that my mouth used to be bigger..:D

Sun and scars....sun and scars....sun and scars. Could be you next, don't wait, get a checkup...at least the prep is easier than a c**********

I had a spot taken off my ear last year with liquid nitrogen, and I'm pretty sure it was freezing, not burning.

I was referring to freezing with an anaesthetic.
You are correct that liquid nitrogen is a supercooled liquid, but it destroys cells in the same way that burning does. I think. I always call the process "burning".

Thanks for the reminder. I am overdue for my check up. Calling the dermatologist most ricky tick.

Bill

Good advice.
I'm prone to pre skin cancer "spots" mostly on my face so see the dermatologist every year. I always put on sunscreen (spf45) before going out for a ride.

Good advice.
I'm prone to pre skin cancer "spots" mostly on my face so see the dermatologist every year. I always put on sunscreen (spf45) before going out for a ride.

I changed to this stuff for my face a few months ago; wow! spf70, if you are not careful putting it on you end up looking like a mime.:roflmao2:

http://rad.smugmug.com/photos/480748157_9ar2T-M.jpg

Odd coincidence on this post, I just had a spot removed last week in US that was frozen off last feb (08) and came back strong. -I'm back in PI now- Wife phoned yesterday to say Lab report is level 1 melanoma. I plan to go back to US in May/Jun to get more skin removed. Dr said i could use a 'cream' but they don't have it here, and I would rather make sure its fully gone. BTW- having sunscreen here is like using a raincoat while swimming. It does not last.

I guess that's one of the "benifits" of living in northeast Ohio,being exposed to direct sunshine is rare!:lol:

I changed to this stuff for my face a few months ago; wow! spf70, if you are not careful putting it on you end up looking like a mime.:roflmao2:

http://rad.smugmug.com/photos/480748157_9ar2T-M.jpg

Hmm....my dermatologist told me anything much over 30 is hype.

But definitely worth getting checked out....had a pre-cancerous lesion removed a couple of years ago...

After having to go through 2 Mohs procedures right around the eyes I am a firm believer in 6 month checkups. Each time now the old nitrogen gun comes out. Still sort of hard to understand what we're going through now isn't the result of what we did last year or the year before but 30+ yrs ago....

Odd coincidence on this post, I just had a spot removed last week in US that was frozen off last feb (08) and came back strong. -I'm back in PI now- Wife phoned yesterday to say Lab report is level 1 melanoma. I plan to go back to US in May/Jun to get more skin removed. Dr said i could use a 'cream' but they don't have it here, and I would rather make sure its fully gone. BTW- having sunscreen here is like using a raincoat while swimming. It does not last.

I'm not a doctor, but I would not wait until May/June if it's melanoma, the most aggressive and dangerous form of skin cancer.
.

Speaking of skin cancer, check out this TV ad from the 50's.

It's truly, completely, unbelievable....(the surprising part starts about 30 seconds in...)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q1gksqqhLU

Hmm....my dermatologist told me anything much over 30 is hype.

I have heard the same. I do know that with this thick goo I can stand in a parking lot baking in the sun for 10-12 hours on a Saturday teaching complete n00bs how to ride motorcycles and come home and have no sun burn. Now, if I had been smart enough to wear stuff like this 40 years ago as a life guard and a beach rat I might not even need to visit a skin doc every 6 months........

Hmm....my dermatologist told me anything much over 30 is hype.


IMHO, your doctor needs to go back to school.

I've been visiting my friendly dermatologist and his little green windshield washer spray can full of liquid nitrogen for 20 years or so. My reward for having worked outside most of my life. Sometimes he gets quite enthusiastic with the damn thing, and it smarts! Week or ten days later though, it's all healed up. I use SPF 50 if I'm going to be out for more than an hour or so.

A timely topic....I just had the liquid nitro treatment 2 days ago on 5 small spots on my face. Now I look like I got into a fight with my cat.....and the cat won!

After having to go through 2 Mohs procedures right around the eyes I am a firm believer in 6 month checkups. Each time now the old nitrogen gun comes out. Still sort of hard to understand what we're going through now isn't the result of what we did last year or the year before but 30+ yrs ago....

Ditto for me. I went to the doctor so he could see a growth by my eye and he said, "Oh, yeah I see two cancerous areas. Two? The other was on the temple. They were able to get the cancer on the first pass of the MOHS procedure. Stitched me up and I looked like a prize fighter for several days.

Now I visit every six months, and they generally find a place or two to freeze.

You're also right about what we did 30 years ago (or more). I remember having my skin peel around the shoulders to start off each summer since I didn't wear a shirt half the time as a kid. Instead of SPF 30, teen-agers would apply baby oil mixed with mercurachrome. That would give them a very healthy glow -- at the time.

A contrarian when I haven't ridden my bike (0 miles today), but doesn't SPF10 enable 10 hours of light radiation compared to 1 hour un-slathered? SPF 35? SPFR 70? 35 and 70 hours?

Now, I take a baby aspirin and a multivitamin "to be safe" but I dunno about all this SPF rated clothes and 70 SPF ointments relative to cancer. Humans were made to be exposed to daylight and most of us spend an unnatural amount of time indoors. Now my milk and orange juice is Vitamin D fortified. Do we have corresponding vitamin D deficiencies as a result of the dermatologist promotion of SPF slatherings and too little sun?

I don't doubt well intentioned dermatologists but might their advice be influenced by research funded by cancer institutes and pharmaceutical companies themselves biased by what leads to more business? It’s no the people I question, rather the system. OK maybe the people should invest more in scrutinizing the actually statistical conclusions of these studies. No doubt reported skin cancers and treatments are up but could some of it be due to the popularity of improved detection? 10 and 20 years ago visiting your dermatologists wasn’t nearly so popular and certainly routinely N2 blasting a few spots was unheard of. I wonder about "pre-cancerous" vs. cancerous and precaution vs. truly necessary treatment particularly if the data is driven by skin cancer data.

I too, like vitamins, get pre-cancerous spots removed, pretty much every visit. I am a big believer in investing in cancer treatment research but.....are we over reacting?

Are we seeing a drop in cancer related deaths with this big increase in skin treatment, SPF slather and summer weight trench coats for the beach? Pass me another multi-vitamin.

My dad has had numerous skin cancers removed from all over his body. I have always been aware of changes in my skin condition and have my doctor look me over every 6 months or less. I have had a few removed but nothing came back alarming yet. Unfortunately I grew up in south Texas and spent many hours in the sun receiving severe sun burns more than a few times. Melanoma is a scary thing because it can pop up in places you would never see unless someone helps. Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen.

Donna had a malignant melonoma removed (very successful-caught before it spread and no further incidences) so we both use sunscreen. But there is concern that it may not block the rays which cause cancerous cells. That being said, I'll still be using it, figure it's better than no protection. And talking to my dermatologist, he mentioned that many people get melonoma's where the sun doesn't shine, so it is not clear exactly what might cause them. I've only had one spot removed, as Donna didn't like the looks of it (looked like the ying-yang symbol)-but turned out be be a nothing skin discoloration (don't remember what it's called). Here's an interesting article regarding skin cancer and sunscreen: http://www.vvv.com/healthnews/dsunscre.html . I'll have my sunscreen on anyway.

Oh man!

I have a funny thingie on my cheek right now. It came up fairly suddenly about 3 or 4 days ago. I've been treating it with some topical antibiotic. If that doesn't do it (it seems to be helping) it'll be off to the dermatologist for me too.

I hate going to any kind of doctor.

Oh man!

I have a funny thingie on my cheek right now. It came up fairly suddenly about 3 or 4 days ago. I've been treating it with some topical antibiotic. If that doesn't do it (it seems to be helping) it'll be off to the dermatologist for me too.

I hate going to any kind of doctor.

I've been getting mine on the tops of my ears. I hate going to the doctor as well, but I think that's life when you get to be our age. I wouldn't trade it for youth again though.:D

I've had three skin cancers removed (the second and third just a few weeks ago), plus a number of precancerous spots treated with liquid nitrogen or photodynamic therapy, and I expect the problems to keep on coming. Being very fair, I've always been very careful about the sun, but it's only recently that people have come to understand that, as far as skin cancers are concerned, it's not just the blazing July noons that are hazardous but any light at all, even late-afternoon light, even light from a thoroughly overcast sky. So many of us have taken measures against sunburn, but skin cancer works a little differently from sunburn and needs its own protections. My dermatologist started me using a line of sunscreens, most of which aren't yet approved in the US but readily available in Canada, from La Roche-Posay labs. The one I get is called Anthelios Lait. The versions available in the US are the low-SPF ones, but the ones available elsewhere come in very high SPFs, and all of them are truly (and not just nominally) broad-spectrum sunscreens. Broad spectrum is what you need to look for to proctect from skin cancers. I like the Anthelios stuff a lot. I know it's not going to stop the skin cancers that are already on the way from appearing, but it sounds as if it can at least prevent further damage.

I changed to this stuff for my face a few months ago; wow! spf70, if you are not careful putting it on you end up looking like a mime.:roflmao2:

http://rad.smugmug.com/photos/480748157_9ar2T-M.jpg

I have heard that anything more than spf 30 is really a waste. Does going to 45 or 70 really make a difference? Did the dermatologist recommend the higher spf? I know they get a lot harder to spread, the higher the spf. Also I thought that the spf rating applied to the length of time you could be exposed to the sun without damage, for example spf of 4 says you can stay out 4 times as long (hours?) than if you had no protection. I have had various things removed over the years and am much more disciplined about protection, but never have used more than and spf 30.

Neutrogena Ultra Sheer didn't do very well on the safe sunscreen list (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens2008/index.php?nothanks=1), either, although some of the other Neutrogena products did.

Neutrogena Ultra Sheer didn't do very well on the safe sunscreen list (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens2008/index.php?nothanks=1), either, although some of the other Neutrogena products did.

It also doesn't do very well on my "Doesn't make my face look like it has white paste smeared all over it" list.

I wear the Rocky Mountain sunscreen with titanium dioxide, 50 spf. But even with a very high spf, I almost always return home with a slightly pink tinge on my nose.

Neutrogena Ultra Sheer didn't do very well on the safe sunscreen list (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens2008/index.php?nothanks=1), either, although some of the other Neutrogena products did.

Could be true, I picked it because when I did my internet search, it was the top rated sunscreen. Oh well....

I think the SPF scoring is a little weird. It doesn't protect for a certain amount of time, but is a measure of how long until burning starts with it on, compared to how long until burning without any protection. So if you can get burned in 15 minutes without any screen, SPF 4 will protect you for 60 minutes, SPF 30 will protect you for 450 minutes. But wait, there's more. These things break down in sun and some MD's recommend re-applying every couple hours. I think that is why they say SPF >30 isn't worth it. Personally, I use the sleeves from a Cool-max long sleeve tee if I am going to be out all day. No time wasted re-applying sun-screen, only to discover I missed a spot. That just leaves my face and knees to worry about. It does look a little geeky, however.