eli5: Why does black skin almost never suffer from skin cancer ? Isn’t melanin being present mean anyone could be affected?
In: 0
>Isn’t melanin being present mean anyone could be affected?
Melanin makes you *less* likely to get skin cancer. Skin cancer happens when sunlight damages the DNA in your skin cells, messing them up so they start dividing too much. The melanin is a dark pigment that absorbs incoming light and prevents it from penetrating deeper into the skin where it could damage the DNA in living cells and cause them to become cancerous. It’s not the melanin that becomes cancer when you get skin cancer – the melanin forms a protective “natural sunscreen” layer that *protects* vs skin cancer. Dark skinned people have more melanin, so they get skin cancer much less often.
Latest Answers