Skin cancer is the most common type of cancers between humans, and appears often in the open spaces of the body and exposed to the sunlight, particularly in the areas of the face, neck and hands, and appears in people whose job is to stay in the wilderness for a long time like farmers and sailors.
It is usually appears in people with light skin more than dark skinned people, as the pigmented material that found naturally in the skin protects the skin and plays a protective role of the harmful effect of the sun and usually appears in older people.
These kinds of cancers are easy to be discovered in order to be treated, they grow slowly and appear as a doctrine or painful ulcer that grows over several years, but if the patient neglects it, it will lead to the destruction of tissues that spread in the neighboring organs, and that each ulcer in the skin which does not heal with the normal treatment within two weeks, patient should check it with doctor.
Skin cancers are treated either with surgical or radial treatment, as doctor decides the suitable method of treatment. Generally, it is advisable to resort to surgical treatment in advanced cases and those where the tumor spread in the lymph nodes or bones, and it is not recommended to be treated by x-ray in people who are forced by their jobs to return exposure to the sun.
In tumors arising near the cartilage, as in the ear, or where the tissue under the skin, as in the scalp, the cure rate of these cancers is estimated by about 95% .
There is a rare type; fortunately, of skin cancer arising from melanocytes (mole), which is one of the most insidious types of cancers in humans, and it is the reason of three-quarters of deaths from skin cancer.
The head and neck are the most vulnerable areas to be affected by cancer, and it may appear anywhere in the body, even under the nails, however it may appear in any age, but mostly occurs in the age of fifties and sixties. Females are more susceptible to be infected, but the possibility of being cured from it is more than in males.
These tumors often arise from previously existed nevus (mole), because these birthmarks might turn into a malignant type of special qualities, they are flat in the thickness of the skin, not high on the surface, have dark surface and free from hairs. Every nevus (mole) is exposed to chronic friction, just like the moles which is located under the breast gland in women, in the neck in males, or in the belt or feet or genital areas which must be eradicated. The appearance of new nevus or alterations in a previous one, just like changes in shape ,size, color, height from the skin surface, or to show the signs of inflammation or ulceration or bleeding, , patient must see the doctor.
The behavior of these tumors can not be predicted, and they are spread through the lymph vessels to nearby lymph nodes and through blood to the lungs and the different places of the body and can be treated by surgical excision, and the immune therapy might be positive in this kind of cancer.