May is skin cancer awareness month. Here are a few facts about skin cancer that highlight why our mission to prevent and cure skin cancer is so important to us:
- One in five Americans will develop skin cancer during their lifetime.
- For those who live to age 65, almost 50% will have either basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma at least once.
- Each year more skin cancers are diagnosed than all other cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon combined.
- In the past 30 years more people have had skin cancer than all other cancers combined.
- Every hour (54 minutes) someone in the US dies of melanoma.
- Melanoma is the most common cancer for young adults 25-29 years old (and the second most common in people 15-29 years old).
- More people get skin cancer from tanning than get lung cancer from smoking.
- If you have ever tanned, you have a 69 percent risk of developing basal cell carcinoma before age 40.
Help us prevent skin cancer by protecting yourself from the sun and by not tanning! If you see a spot on your skin that you are uncertain about, please see a dermatologist.
