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Treatment
Most treatments surgically remove the abnormal cells or destroy them with topical medications. Other options include freezing with liquid nitrogen and laser therapy.

Mark Kasten’s dermatologist checks his skin every three months. And with good reason. Kasten, a Human Resources benefits assistant, has a condition known as displastic nevi, meaning he has hundreds of pencil eraser-sized moles. He had surgery to remove melanomas in 1982, ’87, ’97 and 2000.

“I’ve had so much flesh removed, the upper-left part of my back is actually concave,” said Kasten who grew up in Miami with a back yard swimming pool and was almost never out of the sun.

Having been diagnosed “just in the nick of time,” Kasten said he had three lymph nodes removed under his left arm before the cancer could spread further.

Along with regular checkups he is careful to avoid the midday sun, wears plenty of sunscreen with SPF 15 and swims wearing a white T-shirt.

“Funny thing is, I consider myself lucky,” Kasten said. “If I hadn’t gotten to the doctor when I did back in 1982, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Ron Sandberg in the Mayor’s Office of Health Policy advises anyone who has thinning or balding hair and spending time outdoors without wearing a cap, to have their head examined. Literally.

“Fortunately, I’ve never had full-blown melanoma, but I’ve had two procedures to remove precancerous cells from my scalp,” said Sandberg, 58. “I chalk it up to swimming and playing baseball while growing up in Austin. We never thought much about skin cancer in those days. Being tan was considered cool. We used to soak up the sun at every occasion.”

Balding at 33, Sandberg had abnormal cells removed through cryosurgery – freezing the tissue with liquid nitrogen. Though he started wearing caps and sunscreen, 16 years later he had cells excised through surgery.

He now has a dermatological checkup every six months, wears SPA 15 sunscreen and protective clothing.

“I even wear a cap on cloudy days because UV burning rays can cut right through clouds.”

Watch it!
Dr. Marie Mack has an overriding rule: “If you’re looking in the mirror and see a spot that wasn’t there before or a spot that keeps scabbing over and won’t heal, get to the doctor. Don’t be afraid to find out what it is. Chances for successful treatment are excellent if caught in the early stages.

“Remember, like most things in life, it’s what you don’t know that can hurt you.”

For more information, call the National Cancer Institute hotline, (800) 4-CANCER or visit www.cancer.gov, the American Academy of Dermatology at www.aad.org, the American Cancer Society at www.cancer.org, or BlueCross BlueShield of Texas at www.bcbstx.com.

Promising new drug therapy
A new drug called CP-675 appears to offer a promising therapy for combating advanced melanoma. In midtrial results presented at a conference at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, researchers reported a 43-percent response rate from CP-675, a treatment enlisting the immune system to attack malignant tumors responsible for melanomas. Like a vaccine, it seems to continue working long after patients receive the injections.

Thirty patients with advanced melanoma got the injection. The cancers of five went into remission and eight more either shrank at least 50 percent or stopped growing.

According to M.D. Anderson researchers, it will probably be two years before the drug’s maker, Pfizer, can go to the FDA for approval.

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