Stream 2 Skin Cancer and Tumours - Managing Solar damaged skin

Topics to be covered in the Certificate Course.

Managing Solar Damaged Skin
Retinoids
Keratolytics
Sunscreens
Other topical therapies including Efudix,Solarese, Aldara, PDT and Picato
Total Body Photography for Monitoring

Solar Skin Damage

Skin cancer is a major problem in most countries with a white population nowadays because of travel to warmer climates and sun exposure and also exposure to ultraviolet radiation through tanning parlours has made solar damage a very important issue.  When I was brought up in Scotland, if a farmer showed a solar keratosis on his neck he was brought into a clinical meeting as an example of what sun exposure can do to you, but things have changed in the last 30 years and now even in Scotland solar keratoses are not uncommon and melanoma is a significant malignancy.  Australia is relatively unique in the world where a white population has been transported to a country where the indigenous population were virtually jet black.  Initial settlers wore broad brimmed hats and long sleeves and protected themselves, but from the 1940s fashion has changed and sun exposure was encouraged and millions of people are paying the penalty for it.  Ultraviolet radiation from the sun stretches between a wavelength of about 280 nanometres through to about 400 nanometres.  It is the shorter wavelengths between 280 and 310 that are known as UVB and are the most likely to cause sunburn and also to cause significant actinic damage.  The damage is done by the ultraviolet light causing photodimers to form in the DNA molecule in the superficial keratinocytes.  The body does have repair mechanisms to get rid of these genetic abnormalities but continued exposure often swamps the ability of the body to repair and solar damage occurs.This damage is cumulative There is a genetic disorder of the DNA repair enzymes called Xeroderma pigmentosum where children develope multiple skin cancers because they cannot repair these DNA defects from the sun.