Skin cancer moles

Sun damage doesn't just turn your skin into leather saddlebags. It can be downright deadly.

More than a million Americans each year are affected by one of the three types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma (the most common of all cancers), squamous cell carcinoma, or melanoma. During the past 10 years, the number of new cases of melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, has increased more rapidly than that of any other cancer. The average patient has also gotten much younger. In 1980, skin cancers were mostly found at age 60 and over. Today, patients are being diagnosed in their 20s.

Skin cancer generally occurs on the face, ears, neck, scalp, shoulders and back. People with fair hair, blue or green eyes and light complexions are most at risk, but dark-skinned people can be affected as well, sometimes on the palms or soles, in the mouth or rectum, or under fingernails or toenails. Although the vast majority of skin cancers are caused by overexposure to the sun, they can also show up on the sites of burns, scars, tattoos, contact with arsenic or radiation, or inflammatory skin conditions such as psoriasis.

Having a large number of moles seems to be a risk factor. See a doctor if any mole changes size, thickness or color. Moles that itch, hurt, bleed, ooze or scab are also suspicious. Have any mole that appeared after age 21 checked out.