What causes melanoma to stay out of the bloodstream when it only needs to travel 1mm deep (src: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Giv9lopemY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Giv9lopemY)) to enter. If our cells are constantly dividing and cancer is a damaged cell that doesn’t know when to stop dividing, how exactly is it that humans don’t develop it instantly when greeted with high UV and sun exposure.
In: Biology
Melanoma starts in the melanocytes in your basale layer of your epithelium. These melanocytes rapidly divide. These melanocytes are very very tiny so a lot of them does not seem like much depth to us. However after enough time the cancer can break into the dermal tissue and enter the bloodstream.
However, severity of melanoma is determined by DEPTH not width. If the melanocytes grow sideways it’s really is not that big of a deal. It’s a huge deal if they start moving downward.
2nd question: your cells have machinery such as excision that can get ride of T dimers and other damages to DNA caused by UV radiation. As you keep hitting your DNA though you increase the RISK of a failure in your defense machinery and getting uncontrolled cell growth.
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