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Reduce Your Risk |
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Avoid the sun at peak times during the day
Seek shade whenever possible
Wear sunglasses and sun-protective clothing
Wear a wide-brimmed hat
Wear sunscreen
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Skin Cancer Risks
A risk factor is a behavior or characteristic that increases someone's chance of developing a disease.
Risk factors for melanoma skin cancer:
- Exposure to the sun or artificial sunlight in tanning booths. If you work outdoors, play outdoor sports, or otherwise spend lots of time outdoors, your skin cancer risk is increased.
- Family or personal history of melanoma.
- Fair skin and blue eyes. Tendency to sunburn easily and develop freckles after sun exposure.
- History of sunburns early in life, especially people who have had at least one severe, blistering sunburn as a child or teenager.
- Unusual moles or a large number of moles.
Risk factors for non-melanoma skin cancer (basal cell and squamous cell cancers) are:
- Exposure to a lot of sun or artificial sunlight.
- Fair skin.
- Scars or burns on the skin.
- Having chronic skin inflammation or skin ulcers.
- Being exposed to arsenic, a chemical used in some pesticides and chemotherapy.
- Radiation therapy.
- Taking immunosuppressive drugs.
- Actinic keratosis. These are thick scaly patches of skin that can sometime develop into cancer.
More on Skin Cancer How Common Is Skin Cancer?
Who Is at Greatest Risk for Skin Cancer?
In the Encyclopedia: Skin cancer, non-melanoma
Kaposi's sarcoma
Malignant melanoma
Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma
Sunburn
This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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