HealthInfo Waitaha Canterbury
Overview of skin cancers
Skin cancer is the growth of abnormal skin cells. It is the most common cancer affecting New Zealanders.
There are two main types of skin cancer:
- melanoma
- non-melanoma (called basal cell and squamous cell cancers).
Melanoma is the most serious as it is more likely to spread round your body.
Damage from the ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight is the cause of most skin cancers. Protecting your skin from the sun throughout your life greatly reduces your chance of getting skin cancer.
You have more chance of getting skin cancer if:
- your skin is pale or burns easily
- you've had a bad sunburn, especially as a child
- you've used sunbeds
- other people in your family have had skin cancer
- you have a lot of moles or moles that are large, irregularly shaped or unevenly coloured
- you've had skin cancer already.
Skin cancers are found by checking any mole, freckle or spot (lesion) that:
- is new or changing
- does not heal or has started to bleed
- looks different from others around it
- has changed in size, thickness, shape or colour.
You can check your own skin or get checked by your doctor.
To find out what kind of skin cancer it is, your doctor may remove part or all of the lesion. This will then be looked at under a microscope.
There are different treatments for skin cancers, depending on the type and where it is.Treatment of most skin cancers is very successful especially if found early.
HealthInfo recommends the following pages
- DermNet NZ – Skin cancer
Includes photographs and detailed information about skin cancers.
On the next page: Finding & preventing skin cancers
Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Page created May 2021.
Review key: HIMEL-15455
