Skin Cancer & Your Lips

If you're a regular reader, you know that I'm always posting about skin cancer prevention and reminding you to always wear your SPF.  After working with my handsome Dermatologist husband for 10 years, I've seen far too many people go through painful treatments and surgery to address the damage that the sun has done.  Today's post is about actinic keratosis, or AK's, and what they can do to your lips in particular.

An actinic keratosis, or solar keratosis, is a scaly and/or crusty lesion that can appear on sun exposed areas such as the bald scalp, ears, face neck and LIPS.  You rarely get just one.  They start out small and almost invisible to the eye.  They may disappear and reappear later.  They usually become red but some will be light or dark tan, or pink. They can even bleed.

Actinic keratosis can be the first step leading to squamous cell carcinoma.  If you have actinic keratoses, it means that you have sun damage!  Sun damage can develop into any skin of skin cancer, not just squamous cell.

There are several treatments for actinic keratosis.  One of the most common is the use of Fluorouracil, also known as 5-FU.  5-FU is an anticancer medicine that works by slowing or stopping cell growth.  The medicine interferes with the ability of abnormal cells to grown on the skin's top layer.

5-FU is usually applied once or twice a day for several weeks.  It causes a painful irritation in the actinic keratosis or skin cancer.  A successful treatment results in the specific area of disease becoming inflamed and crusting as the abnormal cells die (the medicine only works on the "bad" cells).  The more damage you have, the worse the reaction will be.

Still not convinced you should wear your SPF every day - including a lip balm with SPF?  How about some pictures of what 5-FU treatment looks like....hmmmm.....

Below are a series of 4 photos of a friend of mine who was diagnosed with actinic keratosis on her lips and went through 2 weeks of 5-FU therapy:

This first photo is just a few days into the treatment:

This is 1 week into treatment - she still has a week to go!

This photo is at the end of her 2 weeks of treatment and the lips will now begin the healing process:

Finally, this is after she had finished her therapy and her lip have begun the healing process:

This is the same process that happens on your skin if you have to use 5-FU to treat AK's on your face, ears, scalp, etc.  

NOW will you wear your sunscreen?  If you're already wearing your SPF on a daily basis, why not up your game and include a lip balm with SPF!  There are a lot to choose from and I'll do a few posts on Facebook and Twitter about some of my favorites.

Until then, thanks for reading!

Peace, Love & SPF