Dr. Nagaraj Puttaswamy

Melanoma is a condition which mainly indicates a severe malfunction of the melanocytes or the melanin producing cells of the body. These cells are responsible for giving you your skin colour, tone and complexion. Usually, a person suffering from melanoma will have many normal and irregular moles as well as melanoma in the eye and digestive tracts too.

Some general facts on melanoma are mentioned below:

1. Melanoma is common in young women and causes many deaths.

2. More than one million new instances of skin cancer or melanoma are analyzed every year.

3. There has been a 2000% increase in rate of melanoma since the year 1930. One out of fifty get affected by this cancer.

4. There has been a high rise in the rate of melanoma from 1970 to 2008. There has been an 800% increase in young women and 400% increase in case of similar aged men.

5. Early recognition makes melanoma treatable. It is screened for growth very minimally.

Primary causes Melanoma may be caused primarily due to these causes:

The most primary cause of melanoma is ultraviolet light (UV) in people with a low level of skin pigment. The UV light might be from either the sun or from different sources, for example, tanning devices. Around 25% of cases occur from or in the form of moles.

The individuals who work on airplanes seem to have an expanded danger, due to more contact with UV rays.

Ultraviolet UV light of wavelengths between 315 - 280 nm from the sun react with the skin cell DNA and result in a kind of direct DNA harm called cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs).

In order to stay away or avoid melanoma, you should:

1. Avoid the sun at peak hours.

2. Examine your skin at times for some kind of change.

3. Keep away from tanning salons. Melanoma is a dangerous form of cancer and causes a lot of deaths. You should stay away from anything that causes melanoma. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!