What Causes Malignant Melanoma ?

By: Adrian Fletcher

With more understanding of skin cancer, the extent to which it affects people becomes fully known. In fact, it is the most common form of cancer in the United States and Australia to date. It is also becoming increasingly prevalent in many other countries throughout the world.

Whilst this might be alarming, most forms of skin cancer are not life threatening and can be treated. The fact that most of the signs of the disease are on the surface of the skin means that they can be identified and treated early on with complete success.

However of the three types of skin cancer, malignant melanoma is potentially very serious and can be life threatening if not spotted early. This article will cover what is malignant melanoma , how it forms and how to prevent it.

Cancer is thought to be caused by a combination of a persons genetic makeup and their exposure to some environmental condition. In the case of malignant melanoma, the environmental condition is too much exposure to the Sun. Specifically, ultraviolet radiation from the Sun (UVA and UVB radiation). Or exposure to other things that radiate ultraviolet radiation onto and into the skin (Sun beds for instance).

Too much ultraviolet radiation can mutate the DNA of a cell, making it cancerous. The genes in the DNA that cause this become known as oncogenes. Cells that have undergone this transformation do not die but divide and proliferate. They grow at an unregulated rate. As they continue to multiply their growth can become invasive.

Invasive growth harms the surrounding tissues and organs. In some cases the cancerous growths can prevent the organs from functioning or can start to grow into the organs culminating with the destruction of the organ. Should the cancer get into the lymphatic system then it can spread throughout the body. When this occurs it becomes hard to stop the spread and difficult to treat.

Current research suggests that the prime cause of malignant melanoma is exposure to ultraviolet radiation. And since it is virtually impossible to not be exposed to sunlight in some way, the Sun is the primary cause of melanoma. However other factors are thought to increase the chances of developing the disease.

If you have a family history of the disease then your chances are increased. If you have fair skin,freckles, fair or red hair and pale colored eyes then you are more at risk. If you have plenty of moles on your skin you may also be at risk (although some people that are born with moles on the skin are not thought to be as susceptible)

The first signs of a melanoma are typically a brown spot or mark on the skin. It may be hard to distinguish from other moles on your body but keep an eye on it. If it starts to change it's shape and grow into an irregular shape then it may be more than just a mole. If it starts to change color too then it may be more than a mole. If anything like this happens then see your skin specialist.

As it is impossible to completely avoid the Sun, all you can do to prevent melanoma is to limit your skins exposure to it. This means wearing a hat, sunglasses, clothing that covers as most of your body and sun cream for areas that are open to the Sun.