Who's most at risk of getting skin cancer?

If one or more of your imme­di­ate rel­a­tives has had melanoma, your risk of devel­op­ing it is high­er. In fact, you’re twice as like­ly to devel­op melanoma if there’s a his­to­ry of melanoma in your close fam­i­ly (par­ents, sib­lings or chil­dren).³ Anoth­er sig­nif­i­cant risk fac­tor is your per­son­al his­to­ry: if you’ve had melanoma once, you have a high­er risk – as much as nine times high­er – of get­ting melanoma again.

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As any­one with pale skin knows, those with fair­er skin are more sus­cep­ti­ble to sun­burn and have a high­er risk of devel­op­ing skin can­cers. The Fitz­patrick scale is made up of six skin types that help deter­mine your skin can­cer risk. Types 1 and 2 refer to ivory or very fair skin with nat­u­ral­ly blonde or red hair and light coloured eyes. Peo­ple with these types of skin have a high­er risk of sun dam­age and like­li­hood of devel­op­ing all types of skin can­cers, includ­ing melanoma.

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Over 50? The bad news is that you’re in the age group that has a high­er risk of all types of skin can­cer. Around 70% of melanoma cas­es occur in peo­ple aged 50 years and old­er2. Not only that, most non-melanoma skin can­cer (such as basal cell car­ci­no­ma and squa­mous cell car­ci­no­ma) typ­i­cal­ly appears after age 50.

So, if you are over 50 and notice any unusu­al or chang­ing moles or sunspots (see what to look for), get it checked by your GP or MoleMap as soon as possible.

Again, while age increas­es your risk fac­tor, being under 50 doesn’t mean you don’t need to wor­ry about get­ting melanoma – it’s less com­mon, but young peo­ple can get it too.

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A mole (or nevus) is a non-can­cer­ous, pig­ment­ed tumour. They often appear in chil­dren and young adults and gen­er­al­ly are of no con­cern. But for peo­ple who have a num­ber of moles, the risk of devel­op­ing melanoma is high­er, even up to sev­en times more if you have more than 100 moles.6

If you have a num­ber of moles, a quick once-over from your GP may not be thor­ough enough: it pays to have them checked by a spe­cial­ist skin can­cer detec­tion ser­vice every year.

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Unusu­al or atyp­i­cal moles have some sim­i­lar fea­tures to melanoma. They’re often larg­er and may have an odd shape or colour – some­times called ​‘the ugly duck­ling’ as they look quite dif­fer­ent to your oth­er moles. For peo­ple that have more than five unusu­al moles, the risk of melanoma is six times high­er.7

If this sounds like you, or some­one you know, check out the ADBCE guide to spot­ting melanoma so you know what signs to look for.

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Get­ting sun­burnt at any age – whether as a child, teen or adult – increas­es the risk of all skin can­cers, includ­ing melanoma, in lat­er life2.

Sun­burn is sun dam­age, so if you’re out in the sun, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the sum­mer months, fol­low these pro­tec­tive tips — and above all, try to avoid get­ting sunburnt.

And if you have chil­dren, keep them cov­ered up or in the shade. Research shows that sun expo­sure in child­hood gives a greater risk of melanoma than sun expo­sure in lat­er life.

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If your skin is exposed to the sun reg­u­lar­ly through work or play, this can increase your risk of skin can­cers such as basal cell car­ci­no­ma and squa­mous cell car­ci­no­ma.

How­ev­er, in the case of melanoma, recent stud­ies show that there’s a greater risk from occa­sion­al high dos­es of sun expo­sure, such as dur­ing hol­i­days, week­ends and recre­ation­al activ­i­ties, than with more con­tin­u­ous sun expo­sure like work­ing out­doors reg­u­lar­ly9.

Either way, when­ev­er you’re out­doors, make sure you pro­tect your skin in the sun and stay in the shade when­ev­er possible.

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If one or more of the above risk fac­tors apply to you (or to some­one close to you), talk to your GP or MoleMap Melanog­ra­ph­er about the best ways to pro­tect your skin – and which type of skin can­cer check is best for you.

For total reassurance, we recommend having a comprehensive skin cancer check every year, one that includes total body photography and skin mapping to monitor your skin over time. Services like Full Body MoleMap offered by skin cancer clinics can provide thorough examinations for early detection and peace of mind.

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Whether you’re high, medi­um or low risk (take our quick risk check to find out), it’s impor­tant to be real­ly vig­i­lant about both pro­tect­ing and check­ing your skin.

Ear­ly detec­tion is the best pro­tec­tion, so get to know your skin and moles — and check them at least every three months for any changes. If you have any con­cerns, see your doc­tor straight away — and see a skin can­cer detec­tion spe­cial­ist such as MoleMap every year.

And of course, good pro­tec­tion when you’re out in the sun is vital. Check out how to stay Sun­Smart here, or a sim­ple way to remem­ber this is the SPOT rule of thumb:

SLAP on a SPF30+ sun­screen every day.

PROTECT your skin – cov­er up or stay in the shade.

OBSERVE – look for changes in your skin reg­u­lar­ly.

TRACK changes every year with MoleMap.

Learn more about MoleMap’s range of skin check ser­vices, or if you think you’re high risk, book an appoint­ment today.

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^References:

^{1. Health Promotion Agency and the Melanoma Network of New Zealand (MelNet) 2017: New Zealand Skin Cancer Primary Prevention and Early Detection Strategy 2017 to 2022.2. Melanoma NZ: https://www.melanoma.org.nz/be-informed/understanding.3. Gandini et al (2005) Meta-analysis of risk factors for cutaneous melanoma: III. Family history, actinic damage and phenotypic factors. European Journal of Cancer, Vol. 41(14):2040-2059.4. Bradford et al (2010) Increased risk of second primary cancers after a diagnosis of melanoma. Archives of Dermatology, Vol. 146(3):265-272.5. Watts et al (2014) Clinical practice guidelines for identification, screening and follow up of individuals at high risk of primary cutaneous melanoma: a systematic review. British Journal of Dermatology, Vol. 172(1):33-47.6, 7. Gandini et al (2005) Meta-analysis of risk factors for cutaneous melanoma: I. Common and atypical naevi. European Journal of Cancer, Vol. 41(1):28-44.8. Ministry of Health: https://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/conditions-and-treatments/diseases-and-illnesses/melanoma9. NIWA UV Workshop, 2014: Trends in melanoma incidence and mortality in New Zealand: https://www.niwa.co.nz/sites/niwa.co.nz/files/Sneyd_UV%20Workshop_2014_Melanoma.pdf}