eli5: Why does black skin almost never suffer from skin cancer ? Isn’t melanin being present mean anyone could be affected?
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“Almost never” isn’t really true. People of color can and do get skin cancer.
However, UV light coming from the sun is a big cause of skin cancer. Melanin naturally protects against UV light. And since people of color have more melanin, they have more natural protection, and so lower rates of cancer caused by it.
“Almost never” isn’t really true. People of color can and do get skin cancer.
However, UV light coming from the sun is a big cause of skin cancer. Melanin naturally protects against UV light. And since people of color have more melanin, they have more natural protection, and so lower rates of cancer caused by it.
“Almost never” isn’t really true. People of color can and do get skin cancer.
However, UV light coming from the sun is a big cause of skin cancer. Melanin naturally protects against UV light. And since people of color have more melanin, they have more natural protection, and so lower rates of cancer caused by it.
Nurse here. People of color absolutely do get skin cancer and their long term survival rate may be less than white people. People of color have more UV protection and get skin cancers less than whites, but it can be harder to detect and people of color are also affected more in other social determinants of health which affect things like availability and access to healthcare and honestly so many other factors that I highly encourage you to learn as much as you can.
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Nurse here. People of color absolutely do get skin cancer and their long term survival rate may be less than white people. People of color have more UV protection and get skin cancers less than whites, but it can be harder to detect and people of color are also affected more in other social determinants of health which affect things like availability and access to healthcare and honestly so many other factors that I highly encourage you to learn as much as you can.
Nurse here. People of color absolutely do get skin cancer and their long term survival rate may be less than white people. People of color have more UV protection and get skin cancers less than whites, but it can be harder to detect and people of color are also affected more in other social determinants of health which affect things like availability and access to healthcare and honestly so many other factors that I highly encourage you to learn as much as you can.
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I think you’re thinking of a melanoma as being “caused” by melanin. But it isn’t. Melanomas, like all cancers, are a result of cells multiplying out of control, usually as a result of damage to their DNA. In this case, it comes from over-multiplication of *melanocytes*, the cells that produce melanin in the skin. But the production of melanin is not, in itself, the problem.
Melanin is in the skin in the first place to absorb the ultraviolet light that would otherwise cause DNA damage. It’s the whole reason most people who live in the sunny tropics are dark-skinned in the first place (or rather, why all humans were until *light* skin evolved later in less-sunny areas).
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