Transcription:
Skin Cancer Awareness and Prevention

Gabrielle 'Gabby' Cinnamon:  Welcome back to the well within reach podcast brought to you by Riverside healthcare. I'm your host, Gabrielle 'Gabby' Cinnamon. And today I'm joined by Katie VanHoveIn, a family nurse practitioner at Riverside health care Watseka campus. To talk about skin cancer, awareness, and prevention. Thank you so much for joining me today, Katie

Katie VanHoveIn: Hi, Gabby. Thanks for having me.

host: So before we kind of get into our topic of skin cancer and skin cancer prevention, can you guys tell me.

a little bit about your background and what you do here?

guest: Yes. I have been a nurse since 2013 and a nurse practitioner since 2019, I work at the Riverside campus and what Seca as a primary care nurse practitioner. And I see patients of all ages.

host: Nice. So you kind of have experienced I'm sure in a broad area of different topics and stuff. So we're going to kind of talk about skin cancer today, but first, before we get more into that, can you explain what skin cancer is and how it forms?

guest: Yes. So skin cancer is when there's an out of control growth of the cells in the epidermis, which is the outer most layer of the skin. This happens when the cell is damaged by UV rays, either from the sun or from tanning beds, and that causes a mutation in the cell.

And then that causes abnormal growth and tumors to form.

host: So I feel like we kind of hear a lot about melanoma. I'm more than others. Maybe it's just me, but are there different kinds that are worse than others or maybe more other kinds of, we should be more concerned about.

guest: Yes. So there's many different types of skin cancer. The most common one is called basal cell carcinoma. You may hear it referred to as BCC. And that's the most common form of skin cancer. Most of the time it's treatable, especially when it's caught early. And that happens usually on sun exposed areas of your skin and it can look like all different lesions.

That's why it's important. Anything you're concerned about, it's important to tell your provider about it. The most deadly and serious form of skin cancer is melanoma. Like you mentioned. And that's why it's important to catch it early. A lot of times melanoma will be where it forms on top of another mole or even yeah.

With animal.

host: So kind of you got into how it forms and such, but can you kind of talk about, go more into the risk factors? I know you mentioned sunburns and I think we kind of, even now here, you know, sunburns that maybe you had as a child can impact you even later in life. Can you kind of get more into that, about what some of the risk factors are that we should be aware

guest: Yes. So there are certain risk factors for certain people. They include lighter skin color skin that burned or freckles easily green or blue eyes, blonde or red hair. If you already have a large number of moles or a family or personal history of skin cancer already, or even as you get older, your chances of skin cancer do increase.

But like you said, having a sunburn at an early young age that does increase your skin cancer risk overall. And regardless if you have these other risk factors that I just went through. Truly the primary risk factor is just exposure to those UV rays. rather if they're from the sun or from tanning beds.

host: So what'd you say to kind of, you know, where we live in the Midwest, we're still at risk, even though, you know, we're not close to the equator, you would say we're still pretty at risk in the summer.

guest: Yes, absolutely. And even summer winter, even on cloudy days the sun rays are still, we're still exposing our sun to them and we still have to protect ourselves.

host: So those risk factors are a little bit out of our control, you know, as you age, you're naturally going to have been in the sun longer, even if you just start stepping outside for a quick walk or whatever, but as far as, you know, what are some steps that we can take for those risk factors that are in our control?

Like, you know, extreme sun exposure and that sort of thing.

guest: So first and foremost, avoid tanning beds all together. You can absolutely lower your risk by avoiding those. You want to wear protective clothing when you're out in the sun that includes wide brim, hats, sunglasses, light, long sleeve shirts, pants. You want to be applying a sunscreen that is waterproof and SPF 30 or higher.

And what's important about that is reapplying it every two hours. And reapplying it after you're swimming or sweating. And then also most people don't realize how much sunscreen we actually need to cover our entire bodies. It's about one ounce or a shot glass full of sunscreen. And you want to cover all of your body, even the parts that are covered by clothing.

And then. You want to also do extra caution if you're around water, snow, sand, that can make your exposure to the rays even higher and you want to be even more careful.

host: So are there certain times a day you would say, you know, be extra careful.

When is the sun most direct or when do you think people might not realize like, Oh my gosh, like. The sun is really hot right now where their UV rays are really high right now. I should probably get out. When is there a time that you think people should avoid?

guest: absolutely. You want to be seeking shade between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. That's when the sun's rays are the strongest. And if you're out in the sun, it's going to be the greatest amount of exposure.

host: So earlier you had mentioned going to your provider, if you start to notice changes in your skin. So do you also be checking your skin yourself kind of before you go that? Or what should that process look like for you?

guest: Yes. I always recommend examining your skin from head to toe. At least once a month. And what you're doing is you're looking for anything new, changing, or unusual, and you want to make sure that you are covering from the top of your head down to your tippy toe. Make sure you're looking at your scalp, moving your hair around, looking for any new lesions.

And then also remember between your toes, between your fingers, even your fingernails, and just be looking for anything new changing are unusual.

host: Are there certain, shapes of moles or, maybe a growth on the skin that people should be aware of. I think we've kind of here. That too, like something might be nothing. I mean, you should always take changes in your skin seriously, but is there anything we should really look out for as far as the shape of a mole or

guest: Yeah. So there's an easy way to remember. It's called the ABCs. Of moles and a stands for asymmetry. So that means that one side of the mole doesn't look like the other be as for the border, like you mentioned. So, irregular scallops, poorly defined borders are something you should definitely report C is for color.

So that means varying colors in the mole, whether it be tan, Brown, black D is for diameter any more that's greater than six millimeters or the size of a pencil racer. You definitely want to report and then is for evolving or that changing mole that's changing in size, shape or color.

host: Let's say you notice a suspicious mole when you’re checking your skin yourself. What should you do after that?

guest: So you absolutely make an appointment with your primary care provider. Whether that be your doctor, nurse practitioner, you want to show them the mole. We will take a look at it. Decide if it's appropriate for us to biopsy ourselves. And that means we would either we would shave it off, send it away for biopsy, or perhaps we would send you to a dermatology or even a plastic surgeon to have it removed.

And then they would biopsy it from there.

host: So let's say, you know, you go to your primary care provider and they do think that it's something you should get checked out. And through one of those methods, you mentioned you get a biopsy. So what kind of happens after that? I guess if it comes back negative or if it comes back positive, like what would the course look like?

guest: So, if it comes back negative, that means it was not cancerous. I just want you to continue with your monthly skin checks and reporting anything newer on usual. If it comes back positive, it depends what type of skin cancer it is. If it's, you know, something like BCC, then we can monitor it.

Perhaps. Further treatment isn't needed, but even an oncology referral might be appropriate for things such as melanoma

host: So, is there anything else we should know about skin cancer? It kind of sounds like at least what I've picked up on is it's important to just be aware of your skin and checking it yourself. Is there anything else we should know as we're entering the summer months?

guest: yes. Just remember those skin checks are important. Re reporting anything that. You are finding unusual. And then I just always want to encourage all my patients to stay away from the UV tanning beds.

host: Thank you so much for joining me today, was really useful information and especially something we should all think about as summer is getting closer and we are   going outside and enjoying our favorite activities, but we can still do that while we're protecting our skin.

guest: Go out, enjoy the sun, enjoy being outside, but just protect yourself and thank you so much for having me Gabby.

host: And thank you everyone for tuning in well within reach podcast, brought to you by Riverside healthcare. To learn more, please visit Riverside healthcare.org.