Squamous Cell Skin Cancer

Squamous cell cancer is the second most common skin cancer, as there are over 200,000 new cases diagnosed yearly.

People who have light skin and green or blue eyes have a greater risk of getting squamous cell skin cancer and the tendency to get it may also be inherited. This is because squamous cell skin cancer has been found on people with perfectly healthy skin with no long term damage to the skin.

People with darker skin can get squamous cell skin cancer, so no one is safe.

People should never think they are ruled out of the potential risk of skin cancer because it can show up anywhere on anyone.

Squamous skin cancer develops in the squamous cells of the skin. These are the layers of cells which make up most of the outer layers of the skin, which is called the epidermis. Squamous cell cancer usually occurs where there has been damage to the skin cells there. It is thought to be caused by:

• over exposure to the sun over a period of years
• x-rays (radiation)
• exposure to arsenic (which can be found in dangerous amounts in the ground, in pesticides, and household chemicals)
• and exposure to crude oil and other petroleum by-products, and other carcinogenic chemicals.
• Squamous skin cancer can develop out of a scar as well because there has been trauma to the skin there.
• There are other factors that contribute to the development of cancer such as low functioning immune system due to disease or other reasons.

Squamous cell cancer starts out as a precancerous mole and then develops quite rapidly into a cancerous tumor. This kind of tumor behaves and looks like an iceberg with tentacles, reaching out to other body tissues. There is more under the skin than you can see from the surface of the skin. It can start out different ways:

• as precancerous growths called actinic keratoses, which is caused by sun damage and looks like red-ish brown scaly bumps. They are found in sun exposed areas of the skin.

• Another precancerous condition called actinic cheilitis if found on the lips from sun exposure, and will appear cracked and pale.
• Leukoplakia is a precancerous condition found in the mucous membranes of the mouth and appear as white patches. They can be caused by tobacco products, rough edges on dentures, and even from damage of a habit of lip biting.
• Bowen's disease appears as a brownish scaly patch and is a less invasive squamous cell cancer, but may get into deeper structures of the body and eventually become a squamous cell carcinoma.
• Squamous cell carcinomas can also start out as a suspicious mole that shows up out of seemingly know where and increases in size, flakes and bleeds.

If untreated, all these precancerous conditions may progress to squamous cell carcinomas or cancerous tumors, that eventually may spread throughout the body becoming full blown cancer.

Squamous cell cancer is known more for disfiguring people because of the rapid growth of this kind of cancerous tumor. It is thought to rarely metastasize after 10 years, but who knows. Squamous cell cancer may metastasize at it's own pace, if at all.

With cancer, early detection and prevention is the key. Until hopefully a cure can be found for it. If you wait too long to investigate little things, sometimes they end up being big things.

I had a squamous cell carcinoma or tumor on my foot, which was very small but situated in a way which was hard to remove. It took a few years to convince the doctors to really look at it because they were stereo-typing the cancer. They were convinced that people don't usually get cancer on their feet in their early 20's, so they didn't think I had a cancerous tumor. I feel like I lost more of my foot than I should have. Thank goodness they were kind enough to reconstruct my foot a bit so it looks and feels almost normal.

I know that I was lucky enough to only get this kind of cancer, which is considered a small cancer compared to the big life threatener's like melanoma skin cancer, which spreads very fast. However, cancer is cancer and all of it is terrible.

If the mole on my foot had never had been checked out, it would have eventually been caught and I would have lost my foot or worse. If the squamous cell cancerous tumor had never been removed, eventually over a period of years, it would have taken over a majority of my foot, metastasized, and would have been the determining factor of my death.

Even after a squamous cancer is removed it can come back. This is because the skin around the area of the previous cancer has probably also been damaged by what ever caused the cancer to begin in the first place. Squamous cell cancer is considered to be a fairly aggressive type of cancer, meaning that is grows fast, and is mostly known for doing large amounts of bodily damage by destroying healthy cells forever. This type of cancer is said to rarely metastasize, or spread to other organs or throughout the body, before ten years of the initial onset of the cancer. It depends on how close to other organs and where the squamous cell cancer is located, how and when it will spread. If you have ever had any kind of skin cancer you should have a full skin check at a dermatologist every six months.

Registered at: http://myfreecopyright.com/registered

MCN: W5HQW-3H2VY-9C28T