RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - On the beach, out in the sun, it’s very common in the summer months.
What these people may not know, they may be setting themselves up for a skin cancer diagnosis later in life.
Jana Duplantis says as a girl she used to put baby oil on to tan her skin. And used sunbeds.
Then one day she was diagnosed with skin cancer.
“Oh, they said it’s not a big deal,” says Duplantis. “It’s basal cell from the sun. We will get it in one pass. And they said we probably got all the margins.”
That was the easy part.
Jana also has a family history of skin cancer. That combined with the sun exposure left her open to various skin cancer diagnosis.
She’s been diagnosed with Basal Cell, Squamous Cell, and even Melanoma--the most dangerous form of skin cancer her mother had and survived.
“This is my seventh Melanoma that she found this week,” says Duplantis of her most recent diagnosis.
Many people have heard of melanoma, and recognize some of the warning signs, like color, irregular borders or change.
Basal and Squamous cell skin cancer may not be as well known.
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common non-melanoma skin cancer. Ignored, it can be serious:
“People can lose their entire ears or their entire noses,” says Dr. Cindy Lamerson, a board-certified Dermatologist with Nevada Center for Dermatology. “And it can really be quite significant.”
Squamous cell carcinoma is extremely common as well. But Dr. Lamerson says there’s a certain percentage of these skin cancer patients who have an aggressive form of this disease.
“That actually are thought to go internally and move around and they can actually metastasize and kill people,” says Dr. Lamerson.
A family history isn’t needed to develop any one of these cancers. Sun exposure can be a common denominator. And Dr. Lamerson says if you are diagnosed with one of these skin cancers, your risk goes up for developing the others.
Jana says her family is well aware of their risk of developing skin cancer.
She says she hopes to end that streak by sending her grandkids SPF protective clothing.
“Make sure I send cute ones.”