What You Need to Know about Sunscreen and Skin Cancer

Prolonged sun exposure and sunburns over long periods of time can cause skin cancer. Your genetic makeup is also a factor. In this Q&A, Tamara Lazic Strugar, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, explains what steps you can take to protect yourself and your family.

Why is sunscreen so important?

Sunscreen is the thing that we can control for us and for our children. Using sunscreen, SPF 30 or above, applying it 15 to 30 minutes before sun exposure, and reapplying it every two to three hours or every time you get out of the water, is one of the things that we can do.

What should I do for my kids?

Keep in mind that childhood sunburns are the ones that usually cause skin cancers later on in life. Skin cancers typically come out 20, 30 years later after the blistering sunburns. So it’s very important to start educating children early on sun protection. SPF 30 or above, a combination of a physical and a chemical sunblock, are the way to go.

What is melanoma?

In order to prevent a deadly form of skin cancer–melanoma–it’s very important to do annual skin cancer screenings, which are recommended for everybody. Once a year, you should see your dermatologist and get all your moles, freckles and the entire skin – it’s the largest organ of our body – it needs to be checked once a year. Catching a melanoma early can be life-saving, so that’s the main purpose of these screenings.

What about other forms of skin cancer?

There’re two more types of skin cancer: basal cell and squamous cell. Those are typically not deadly but can be quite disfiguring if they’re left alone. So, make sure that you see a dermatologist once a year for your skin cancer screening.