• Question: Is cancer considered a skin - related disease?

    Asked by jjnsarson to Anna, Chris, Jane, Iain, Nick on 11 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 11 Mar 2014:


      No, although you can get skin cancer. Cancer is considered by most scientists, including myself, to be a disease of DNA, although there a small minority that would disagree. As DNA is in almost every cell in your body, including your skin, it is possible to get cancer almost anywhere.

    • Photo: Anna Middleton

      Anna Middleton answered on 12 Mar 2014:


      Hi @jjnsarson
      I agree with Iain, cancer can occur in the skin, but it can also occur in many other places in the body – lungs, bowel, brain, breast. As a part of life our cells divide all the time. Cancer occurs when this process goes out of control. Cancer of the skin can occur when the cells on the skin, e.g. in a mole go crazy and don’t stop dividing. It’s really important to pick up cancer early if you want to treat it and so if you see a mole on your skin that is changing shape or colour then go see a doctor.

    • Photo: Chris Cole

      Chris Cole answered on 14 Mar 2014:


      I’m going to disagree with Iain and Anna.

      Although all cancers are caused by damage to DNA which leads to out-of-control cell growth, some have specific properties related to where they started.

      Cancers like leukaemia and brain tumours are quite different from other cancers. I’d argue that skin cancers are also different and this is down to them being from the skin.

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