You look in the mirror and see a dark black spot on your skin you don’t remember seeing before. Do you ignore it and go on with your day? If you do, it could cost you your life.
That dark black spot on your skin was melanoma cancer. This skin cancer forms when skin cells are destroyed and start to create cancer cells. The skin cells can be destroyed from a severe sunburn or/and tanning beds. When it first forms it will look like a dark freckle and it will start to become bigger until it is large enough to spread to the other organs. “In 2016 alone, over 10,000 people died in the U.S.” Says the Melanoma Research Foundation.
There is no definite way to avoid this cancer because your age and family history can't be controlled. Although there are ways you can try to prevent this cancer from happening in the future. The best thing to do is to stay away from tanning bed because the ultraviolet rays will start to damage your skin cell until they are destroyed causing cancer cells. In the summer the Sun is always stronger so you need to put on sunscreen to make sure that you are protecting your
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So what are we already doing to help? In order to treat melanoma they have to diagnose what type it is. If it is Type 0-3 then it is treatable by surgery, but if you are diagnosed with type 4 or recurrent than it has already spread to the other parts of your body. By this time you have 5 months to live and you have a 10-15% chance of surviving. There is no cure for these two stages other than antibiotics and hope (positive attitude). Today scientists are trying to find a cure to melanoma by taking the tumors that have been removed from people and try to break all of the components down. Three out of ten people will have to get a tumor removed four times before they can know for sure that the cancer is