Catching Skin Cancer Early
- Michael Lohan, father of Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan, just had a very aggressive skin cancer lesion removed from his hand and shared about the experience with SurvivorNet, explaining how important it is to act fast when something is amiss with your health.
- All skin types can suffer from the sun, but there are certain risk factors that could increase your chance of getting skin cancer, such as early exposure to the sun, having more than 50 moles on your body, and a personal or family history of skin cancer.
- Make sure to get your skin checked annually with a dermatologist, who may advise you to come in more frequently depending on your risk level — and in between those visits, doing regular self-checks on your own skin is also important to look for anything suspicious that may have popped up, especially if a mark has changed in a short amount of time.
“I just got it out yesterday. They cut from the knuckle of my index finger to my wrist,” the 63-year-old describes of the surgery. “A week or two ago I noticed something on the top of my hand. I was like, ‘That’s weird.’ It was raised, just looked like a little mole.”
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“What people don’t realize is skin cancer is lethal, it’s deadly. We really have to be careful. I never realized the effects of sunlight and being in the sun and not using sunscreen.”
“I talked to my kids about this — we all want a tan, and no one wants to put on sunblock all the time. I used to use baby oil,” the native New Yorker recalls, which is a common story from a time when people didn’t yet know how bad the sun was.
“Remember Bain de Soleil? I used to live in that stuff. I drowned myself in it,” the father of six shares of the popular brand he used during his more carefree tanning days.
“I’ve been going through this for a while,” Lohan continues. “I’ve had suspicious lesions on my hands, on my forehead, on the top of my head, on my leg — but they were all benign. Then I got one on my arm a couple months ago and it turned out to be aggressive squamous cell carcinoma. They went and did a biopsy, didn’t get enough, so they had to do a Mohs surgery and they were able to get everything.”
Mohs surgery is a precise method for removing high-risk skin cancer.
RELATED: Mohs Surgery Removes Skin Cancer With Smaller Incisions and More Certainty
Lohan’s latest surgery, however, was even more of a warning to really be “cognizant” of anything popping up on his skin, and he’s taking the doctor’s warning seriously, as he explained to Lohan that it will come up again somewhere on his body.
How to Examine Your Skin in Between Dermatologist Visits
“I just pray that everyone out there is a little more cognizant of any marks and legions on their body, whether it’s a mole or it looks like any kind of freckle or something that gets a little bit raised or scabby or anything like that, they need to go have it checked.”
Lohan says he didn’t tell too many people what was going on at first, just his sister and his son Michael, because he needed to talk to someone. “Because it’s scary,” he admitted about the seriousness of the situation hitting him.
“It wasn’t worrisome at the beginning, but when they called me and told me to come in tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock, I laid in bed the night before and thought, ‘What if this has gotten into my system and I have to go for chemo’ or something like that.”
“The kids not having me around is something hard to fathom,” he adds.
Learning About Common Skin Cancers
Squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and melanoma are the three most common types of skin cancer, according to the CDC. Basal cell carcinoma develops in the lower part of the epidermis of the skin, called the basal cell layer. These cells turn into squamous cells, as in Lohan’s case. Melanoma, on the other hand, is the most dangerous type of skin cancer and the most likely to grow and spread.
Squamous and basal cell skin cancers are often found on “the head, neck, and arms,” per the American Cancer Society, where the sun has the most exposure. About “5.4 million basal and squamous cell skin cancers are diagnosed each year in the U.S.”
People who spend lots of time in the sun unprotected or use tanning beds are most at risk for basal and squamous cell skin cancers.
Like basal and squamous cell skin cancers, the chance of getting melanoma cancer increases with excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) like from the sun or tanning beds.
Skin Cancer After Early Tanning Days
There’s no question that rays from the sun are harmful on your skin and can cause cancer, but early exposure to the sun when there wasn’t any real awareness of the dangers — or much sunscreen used (if at all) — has proved to be even more dangerous for people like Lohan later in life.
Covering up when outside, especially if it’s for longer periods of time, is always a good idea. You can still have fun in the sun, but protect your skin with higher-SPF sunscreen and apply it frequently.
3 Skin Cancer Myths, Busted: Can One Bad Sun Burn Cause Cancer?
All skin types can suffer from the sun, but there are certain risk factors that could increase your chance of getting skin cancer.
Dr. Jesse Lewin, system chief of the division of dermatologic and cosmetic surgery at Mount Sinai, explained to SurvivorNet that some people are more at risk for several reasons:
- If they have more than 50 moles
- If they have a propensity to burn, which is typically people with lighter hair
- If they have a personal history of melanoma or melanoma in their family
- If they have sun exposure history from natural sunlight or from tanning beds
As Lohan suggests, go to a dermatologist to get checked, and see the doctor annually unless they determine you are higher risk, then every six months could be the more standard timeframe. As with any cancer or disease, catching it early is key, so the sooner you get in the better chance you have to get your health back.
Skin Cancer Checklist:
In between doctor visits, doing regular self-checks on your skin is also important to find skin cancer early. Again, particularly if you’re high-risk.
Dr. Cecilia Larocca, a dermatologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, recommends looking at your skin once a month for anything suspicious and using the acronym ABCDE as a checklist:
- Asymmetrical moles: if you drew a line straight down the center of the mole, would the sides match
- Borders: irregular, jagged, not smooth; can also stand for bleeding
- Colors: multiple distinct colors in the mole
- Diameter: larger than 6mm, about the size of a pencil head eraser
- Evolution: This may be the most important, anything that is changing over time such as gaining color, losing color, painful, itching, or changing shape.
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
If you are diagnosed with skin cancer, you may have some questions for your doctor. SurvivorNet suggests some of the following to help you on your cancer journey.
- What type of skin cancer do I have?
- What treatment options exist for this type of cancer?
- Will insurance cover this treatment?
- Would treatment through a clinical trial make sense to me?
- What resources exist to help manage my anxiety because of this diagnosis?
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.