Skin Cancer: Not Just a White Man’s Disease

As a Bald Man who has forgotten his sun screen on many many occasions, my ears tend to perk up whenever I hear news related to skin cancer. So, when I read this story, I felt like I should pass it on. Two things to highlight:

• Yes, skin cancer is primarily white person’s disease. (Caucasians are 70 times more likely than blacks to get it.) But, it is not exclusively a white person’s disease.
• When skin cancer occurs among black patients, it is more likely to be deadly. The articles suggests a couple medical/biological reasons for this. (We’ll leave theories involving socio-economics and race for another time.) First, when blacks get skin cancer, they tend to get more dangerous forms of it. Second, the cancer tends to appear in non-traditional locations, such as the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.

So, Bald Men of color: Enjoy your bald heads, but take care of yourself. A mole isn’t always a mole.