CEC ARTICLE 1 OF 5 ARTICLES
RESEARCH REVIEW
SKIN CANCER
AND OUTDOOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
When it comes to prolonged bouts of outdoor sports and exercise , some physical activities carry greater risk than others . Review by Dr Mike Climstein PhD & Dr Joe Walsh PhD
Introduction : I am a water and beach baby through and through . I spent all my younger years in South Florida , only three kilometres north of the equator . From playing in the sand and ocean as a toddler , to beach sports , paddle ball and surfing as a teenager , all under the full strength of the hot Florida sun . Jump forward in time , and I was a Research Fellow in the Department of Cardiology at Lidcombe Hospital in NSW and living the life . My position included accommodation in the doctors ’ quarters , a 10m 2 room ... The cosy , communal living wasn ’ t exactly grand , but life was pretty good .
I was the only PhD ‘ doctor ’ living there , all the other residents were ‘ real ’ ( medical ) doctors : this latter bit is important . Lidcombe is not oceanfront by any means , so to get my surf fix I had to travel approximately 35 kilometres , via a train to Sydney ’ s Circular Quay , then a ferry to Manly beach … all with surfboard underarm . Yes , I was dedicated ( still am , though I live beachside these days !). Board , baggies and some money for the travel and rehydration , and I ’ m good to go … or am I ? What could I possibly be forgetting ?
Work hard , surf plenty I say . So , after a long surf and the arduous trip back to the hospital residence , I ran into Linda , the Dermatologist who lived upstairs . She took one look at me , scolded me all the way from the front door to my room just because I had a bit of a sunburn on my face , shoulders and arms ... you get the idea . The lecture she gave me that day became embedded in my grey matter for life , and she wrapped it up by instructing me to see her the following day for a total body skin check . Uh oh .
The reason for the scolding is that sunburn , especially repeated sunburn , significantly increases a person ’ s risk of melanoma skin cancer . For example , Cancer Research UK states that getting a sunburn just once every two years triples your risk of melanoma . Additionally , exposure to high solar ultraviolet radiation is also a significant risk factor for skin cancer , particularly the development of malignant melanomas .
A melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer which , if undetected , grows very quickly . Worse , melanoma skin cancers can spread to other parts of your skin , enter your lymphatic system and / or blood stream and then spread to other parts of the body ( i . e . malignant melanoma ).
This year alone , Cancer Australia estimates there will be approximately 1,400 deaths attributed to melanoma skin cancer ( the rate is higher for males than females ). Globally , the World Health Organization estimates there will be 132,000 melanoma skin cancers this year , with an additional three million non-melanoma skin cancers . Australia has the highest standardised rate of skin cancer
The risk for developing squamous cell carcinomas was higher in the water sports participants
42 | NETWORK SUMMER 2020