What Causes Melanomas?

Answer

To answer your question, you first need to know something about UV rays:

In addition to visible light, the sun also emits UV rays. It is these UV rays that are very active on our skin.

• they ensure that our skin produces more melanin (the brown pigment)
• they are necessary for the production of vitamin D in the skin
• they can modify the DNA in skin cells
• they cause burning of the skin cells in the event of an overdose

It is because of these last two properties that the pigment-containing cells (the melanocytes) in our skin can be so badly damaged at the level of the DNA that this DNA (= our hereditary material) passes on incorrect information. The cell “degenerates” : it multiplies, but the new cells have a wrong structure and start multiplying again for no reason. That’s how cancer develops. When it is the melanocytes that degenerate, we speak of a melanoma.

So you notice that you run a higher risk of melanoma as the DNA in your skin cells receives more UV radiation. Moreover, if you get burned, you run the risk, because both the burning and the UV radiation itself can change the DNA and thus develop a melanoma.

However, you can protect yourself with sunscreen, because it blocks the UV rays. So rubbing means less risk of cancer.

However, our skin itself also has a protection mechanism against the harmful UV rays. Namely the pigment (melanin) in our skin itself. This ensures that the UV radiation does not penetrate deeper into the skin and that the DNA is protected. The darker your skin color, the better protected you are.

So if we compare someone who anoints himself, yet burns himself with someone who does not anoint himself, but tans, we must conclude the following:

In the person who tans, the own protection mechanism works better than in the person who had rubbed himself, but still burned. With the latter, the UV rays therefore reached the skin cells to a much greater extent, because it even led to burns.

So unfortunately, the person who still burns despite sunscreen is more likely to develop melanomas than the person who tans without sunburn and without rubbing.