When I was growing up and going to the beach in the 1940s and 1950s we had never heard of “sun block”. We walked around all summer in our bathing suits and even put stuff on our skin to make our suntan darker. It seems to me we should all be suffering from massive cases of skin cancer, yet I don’t seem to notice much among my contemporaries. Why not? Is all this talk about the danger of the sun’s rays just so much hype, an exaggeration making a mountain out of a mole hill?
Tanning IS skin damage.
http://www.skincancer.org/Skin-Cancer-Facts/
[ul]
[li]Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million cases in two million people are diagnosed annually.[/li][li]Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon.[/li][li]One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime[/li][/ul]
… and so on.
We don’t know how old you are, where you live, how many contemporaries you have nor how much time they spent in the sun. So we can’t really say why you fail to notice what’s probably happening around you.
Anecdotally:
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[li]My 90yo father, who worked on a farm in the 30s and 40s, and was a car salesman in the 50s and 60s, has had a number of surgeries over the last 30 years for skin cancer, mostly on his face.[/li][li]One of my wife’s grandfathers, who died 15 years ago in his 90s, wore a fake ear after having what was left of his real one removed after cancer.[/li][li]Three years ago, when I was 60, I had skin cancer cut out of one ear lobe. I had not been a sun worshipper, but would end up tanned by normal outdoor activities in the 50s and 60s. Started wearing sunblock in the 70s.[/li][li]Ten years ago, at 48, my younger sister had various skin cancers cut away. She had a bad sunburn when she was 13.[/li][/ul]So, we’re/they’re out there.
Anecdotally, I’m aware that many of the elderly people I know, including my father, have had skin cancers removed. In addition to Askance’s excellent cite, here’s an article from Australia, a country where people get extensive sun exposure.
Where I grew up, the old timers who were well weathered from outdoor hobbies sometimes had skin cancer.
Ain’t anecdotal evidence great? Yippee!
Keep in mind, too, that not all skin cancer is equal. Some varieties you can co-exist with for years, even decades, without them killing you. They’re still cancer, just not aggressive melanoma.
More anecdote: One of my grandfathers had various lessons removed through his old age – but he did live to 102. His son, my father (just turned 76), a former mail carrier, has just had some rmoves and starts radiation two Mondays from now. His side of the family is very fair-skinned; my mother’s side is olive-skinned and I have known none of them to have had this problem. Growing up in this tropical island in the 60s and 70s we got some heavy sun in our childhood and teens so we’ll see what happens with my generation (c’mon, let’s take after Mom!). So yes, this does happen but I suppose many who could be vulnerable may die from other causes (cardiovascular, diabetes, smoking, drinking) before this becomes an issue.
Nope. Did you imagine that doctors just invent stories about the causes of skin cancer without understanding anything about how it happens?
Maybe your cancerous contemporaries all died from it. Anecdotes don’t mean squat.
My guess is you see people everyday who had some removed but you just don’t know about it.
My mother, brother, sister, brother-in-law, and I have all had skin cancers removed. Unless you knew it, you wouldn’t know it to look at us … until I had the top of one ear removed a few years ago.
I recently went with Mr. brown to a skin doctor so he could have some skin cancer removed from his temple.
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His suspicious spot was invisible, except maybe for a little reddening. He said it felt slightly rough to the touch. Not all of the cancers are obvious to the naked eye.
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It was surgery day, and the waiting room was filled with people in their 60s and 70s. All were getting something cut off their faces or scalps. So your estimation about the age of people due to get skin cancer was accurate.
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Good skin doctors will leave little scarring. This guy was also a plastic surgeon, so after Mr. brown was pretty well healed up, you couldn’t really tell that he had had surgery at that place unless you were looking for it.
I know a lot of people who have had skin cancers removed, and mostly, the scars aren’t really visible. I know about the cancers because I enquired about the new bandage on a face, for instance.
My olive-skinned Sicilian descent father has had a LOT of skin cancers removed. And yes, he used to fool around on a boat every summer.
I distinctly remember my grandfather having skin cancer lesions removed decades before “the hype.”
According to the CDC, melanomas have been increasing by about 3% each year since the 1980s. That may not be epidemic levels, but a trend is a trend.
So it looks like the answer to the OP is: Yes, lots of people get skin cancer. It ain’t just hype. But it is easily curable; doctor cuts it out, usually just an office visit.
And yes, one gets used to being pale. Now, when I see suntan, I don’t see healthy glow, I see skin damage. Really.
Usually it’s curable, but sometimes it’s not, especially if you don’t get it removed early. So get your ass to the doctor ASAP if you’ve got weird growths.
The most common forms of skin cancers are relatively benign carcinomas, accounting for over 90% of all cases. These are normally very treatable and not very dangerous. Melanomas are similarly easy to treat, but only if they’re caught in early stages. Just cut 'em out and you’re good. However, metastatic melanoma is practically a death sentence – aggressive treatment hardly even slows it down. Melanoma accounts for about 3% of all skin cancers, but it’s responsible for the overwhelming majority of all skin cancer deaths.
ETA: I’ll toss my familial anecdotes into the pile. Just about every one of my relatives from my grandparent’s generation has had some sort of growth removed. Many grew up as tobacco farmers, presumably getting plenty of sunlight exposure as kids.
I’ve had close to 30 skin cancers removed over the years; most of them were no big deal but two of them were really serious. I started having them removed when I was around forty but there was a big spike in my late fifties and sixties. I’m sure I’ll have to have a few more removed before I’m done.
I don’t know anyone who’s had skin cancers removed and neither have I. Just to provide a data point…
Just to add my two cents, I’ve had a basal cell carcinoma removed on my nose and so has my S.O. I’m not even close to 60. Most sun exposure results in basal cell carcinoma not the malignant kind. The people I’ve heard of who died of melanoma (a few very young people) generally had it somewhere where the sun usually don’t shine and so it went unnoticed until it was too late. (sole of the foot, inside of the hand, to name two examples)
I get sunspots burnt off 30 or more at a time (my best was over 60 at one sitting). Also had various BCC’s and SCC’s cut off. My dad is still alive and has had various melanomas cut off to reach 89. He grew up in Darwin and spent a lot of time in the sun.
Sun exposure is a balance between healthy bones and unhealthy skin.
Most sun-exposure skin cancers are basal cell; these don’t kill people.
Some are squamous cell; these do if you totally ignore them and they get way out of control.
Melanomas are more controversial. These are nearly uniformly lethal once they escape the skin and spread elsewhere. The dermatology party-line is that they are a result of sun-exposure damage, but it’s an interesting discussion to try and prove it.
If you are a light-skinned individual, there’s no question sun-exposure is going to give you an increased risk of skin cancers (and being dark-skinned is not entirely protective). Talk to your childhood beach buddies. If there aren’t a bunch of basal-cell skin cancer stories, you don’t have a representative sample of sun-exposed geezers, as any dermatologist in Florida will attest to.