Word: sun
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...corner, the pale of face throughout the Northern Hemisphere will soon be hitting beaches in pursuit of a deep, dark and sexy tan. The Victorian ideal of delicate, camellia-white skin has long since been supplanted by the bronzed-god look. But the trend has taken a mortal toll. Sun-related skin cancer is rapidly on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, and afflicting younger and younger people. The incidence of the most lethal form, malignant melanoma, though less directly linked to sunshine, has jumped tenfold in the past 20 years. Last week some 300 dermatologists and others gathered...
Doctors have long known that ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun produces profound changes in human skin. "Even one day's exposure can cause damage," says Dermatologist Fred Urbach of Temple University in Philadelphia. The most insidious rays are the short wavelength UVB, which prevail during the peak sun hours (between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.). But new research has shown that even longer UVA waves, which are present all day, can promote skin cancer...
...ordinary sunburn, to the wrinkles and liver spots caused by years of sunbathing, to the precancerous dark patches known as actinic keratosis and, finally, cancer. Each of these is part of the same process, says Urbach. "First you look old, then if you've had a lot more sun, you get keratosis, and after that skin cancer. If we all lived long enough, we would all get skin cancer...
...cell DNA, producing the mutations associated with cancer. "Both UVA and UVB are carcinogenic," says Harvard Photobiologist Madhu Pathak. UV also appears to suppress the body's immune system. This may explain why certain viral infections, such as chicken pox and fever blisters, become more severe in the sun. And since the immune system is believed to play a role in preventing tumor growth, its suppression "may also be an aggravating factor in the development of skin cancer," says Dr. Margaret Kripke of the National Cancer Institute...
About 80% of the skin cancers caused by the sun are basal-cell carcinoma. Usually occurring on the head or neck, they are the most common and curable form of cancer in the U.S. Nancy Reagan was one of 400,000 Americans treated for this disease last year; she has more recently had several spots of keratosis removed from her face to prevent a recurrence. Skin cancers that appear elsewhere on the body are usually squamous-cell carcinoma, also easily cured by surgery...