Suffering from sun burn, pain. Will it lead to skin cancer? Treament, prevention
Patient: My girlfriends feels burning and pain on her neck , upper back, and arms after being exposed to the sun, why is she in pain? Is there a symptom that she may be having? She has told me that since being young she had been told to not be out in the sun for an extended amount of time because it causes her pain. Why is that? She is afraid that it will lead to skin cancer , will it lead to skin cancer? Does she have a symptom? Are there any cures, treatments and/or prevention s that she may be able to take? Thank you Doctors for your help. Doctor: Hello, thanks for using HCM.  A burn is a damage of the skin by an aggressive agent which could be fire, hot water, steam, chemicals like acid, electricity, sun etc. Sun produces a characateristic burn which is term first degree burn which affects just the first layer of the skin (epidermis).  First degree burn is painful due to presence of free nerve fibres in the epidermis and as such sun burns can be severely painful. Long term exposure to sunlight has been implicated to be a cause of most of the common skin cancers, with sun burn increasing the risk of skin cancers even more.    A skin cancer like basal cell carcinoma particularly occurs on bear body parts like the neck, face, hands etc and thus strongly supporting the role of sun light on skin caners.   Common skin cancers include squamous cell carcinoma (scc), basal cell carcinoma (bcc) and a malignant melanoma (mm).   Each cancer type presents with its own characteristic type; bcc present with translucent or flesh colored scar tissue especially in sun exposed areas, scc presents as a red crusted fast growing lesion and mm as a growing lesion with irregular borders, and variation in colour within the lesion.   When skin cancers are diagnosed early enough, complete cure is possible  unlike when t is diagnosed later along its evolution.   What she needs is to avoid frequent sun exposures, once in  a while check the skin for any abnormal lesions ec. Best regards and hope this helps