Skin Cancer Awareness Month 2018

May is skin cancer awareness month. With more than 5.4 million cases diagnosed annually, skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. Skin cancer is also one of the most preventable forms of cancer and highly treatable when detected early.

There are several different types of skin cancer, including melanoma, basal cell skin cancer and squamous cell skin cancer. Nonmelanoma skin cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer in the United States, with more than 2 million people diagnosed each year. Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, which are nonmelanoma skin cancers, are the most common types of skin cancer. Nonmelanoma skin cancers rarely spread to other parts of the body.

Although melanoma represents less than 5 percent of the skin cancer cases diagnosed in the United States each year, it results in the most deaths. According to estimates made from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, some 87,000 Americans will be diagnosed with melanoma and nearly 10,000 people will die of the disease in 2017.