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Skin
Cancer
You've noticed
that sunspot, or birthmark, or whatever it is, for years,
but it's never grown or even itched. How could you know that
it is silently, painlessly ticking toward eruption?
You may escape death, depending on which description you
fit. Still, death will leave a calling card: You'll have
scars on your face, arms, and back, and a suspended
sentencing hanging over your head, because far more
aggressive skin cancer could suddenly appear at any time for
the rest of your life.
There are basically two types of skin cancer -- lethal and
disfiguring. The lethal kind is melanoma. It killed Bob
Marley and Burgess Meredith, and might have killed Dallas
Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman at the start of the 1998
NFL season and Senator John McCain during the 2000
presidential campaign if they hadn't been saved by speedy
surgery. Worldwide, one person will die of melanoma every
hour, because the disease is fast and extremely aggressive:
Once it penetrates your skin and enters your bloodstream, it
can travel with nightmarish nimbleness, attacking your brain
and every other organ in a matter of weeks.
Basal-cell and squamous-cell carcinomas, on the other hand,
very rarely kill. They're the disfiguring type of skin
cancer, munching away at your face and chest and arms like a
flesh-eating virus. Left untreated for too long, they can
cost you chunks of your ears, cheeks, chest, and arms.
Nearly 1 million Americans have basal-cell carcinoma, and if
you add in cases of squamous cell and melanoma, skin
malignancies rank as the most common cancer in the United
States.
These are sobering statistics. Don't outguess melanoma. It
may disappear and lie dormant for years, then reappear with
frightening voraciousness.There are two thngs you can never
underestimate about skin cance: Speed and
Unpredictability.
Feel the need to get all the information you want regarding
skin cancer. Start here at WildAhiNet. Then get that
sunspot, birthmark, or mole checked out. You won't regret
it.
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