Fact Check: Is skin cancer a new phenomenon in last 60 years?

Hyderabad: An Instagram reel of a woman claiming that skin cancer is a new phenomenon in 60 years, is being widely shared on social media.

In the viral reel, the woman could be seen saying, "Skin cancer is a relatively new phenomenon in the last 60 years or so, and yet our ancestors for hundreds of years have been living outdoors, working outdoors, and they didn't get skin cancer".

Social media posts claim skin cancer has only emerged in the past 60 years. Let’s find out the truth.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false.

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer. The main types of skin cancer are squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and melanoma. Melanoma is much less common than the other types but much more likely to invade nearby tissue and spread to other parts of the body. Most deaths from skin cancer are caused by melanoma, explains National Cancer Institute.

Journal of American Academy of Dermatology says, “The first descriptions of cancer are documented in Egyptian papyri dating 2500 BC. Hippocrates described nonulcer and ulcer-forming tumors, which he named carcinos (Greek for crab) as these tumors had finger-like projections resembling a crab. Laennac made the first description of melanoma in 1804, Jacob of basal cell carcinoma in 1827, and Bowen of squamous cell carcinoma in situ in 1912.”’

“A group of experiments performed by dermatologists, physicists, and other medical scientists between the 19th and 20th century demonstrated that skin cancers were induced by UV radiation and that skin pigmentation had a protective effect from radiation. They also demonstrated that certain chemicals could potentiate skin damage and skin cancer formation, while other chemicals could block radiation and protect the skin. It was in 1928 that the first sunscreen became available. Although it was known that UV radiation could cause skin cancer, it was not until the 1940s that its damage to nucleic acids became evident.”

He said: “Not really, there are multiple angles to this. If you look at skin cancer, it's one broad term. You have multiple cancers under the skin cancer. It could be basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and Melanoma. Generally, there are various reasons for it. It could be sunlight, exposure to dangerous chemicals, genetic history, or the melanin in your skin. With regards to sunlight, we Indians are genetically protected because of our dark skin. That itself is a good enough protection against skin cancer. If you look at the caucasian skin, their skin does not contain melanin and that's the reason when a Caucasian is exposed to the sun it is difficult for them to get tanned. That is why they are prone to get skin cancer or sunburn because of the lack of melanin in their skin.”

“Whereas, we Indians have melanin naturally that protects our skin from these adverse events. But this melanin also becomes much more when we expose ourselves to the sun. That is how we Indians get tanned very easily. But we don't get sunburns or different types of skin cancer easily. The second angle to this, we used to wear lesser clothes than what we used to wear today, and we mostly stayed outdoors in olden times. The third angle to this, could be the life span of individuals that has increased over a period of time.”

So, it's completely false that skin cancer was not there 60 years ago, they were there but now we have better early induction and awareness these days. We have proper detection and prevention against it through medical procedures. Definitely, exposure to chemicals or UV rays has increased cases nowadays. But still, Indians are much safer than the Western population.