Nurse warns against sun exposure, tanning beds

Skin cancer affects more people than any other cancer, with more than 2 million people diagnosed annually.

That statistic hits close to home for Kansas City, Mo., resident Denny R. Donnelly, 77.

Donnelly was diagnosed with a melanoma skin cancer in 2005. He started treatment in February 2006, which he said included weekly interferon shots for a year.

Donnelly said he noticed an unusual spot on his body in the spring of 2005.

“Sometimes it would bleed,” he said.

Donnelly said his primary care doctor told him to monitor the spot and come back in six months. Donnelly decided to get a second opinion.

“You don’t wait six months to check it again,” he said.

The second physician had the spot biopsied, which revealed that Donnelly had melanoma.

Fortunately, the melanoma had not spread.

“If we would have waited any longer it would have,” Donnelly said.

Physicians and nurses at Kansas City Cancer Center successfully treated Donnelly’s skin cancer.

“When my year was up from treatment they brought in a cap and a gown and said I had graduated,” Donnelly said. “If it hadn’t been for those people I don’t know what would have happened.”

Donnelly now receives twice yearly skin checks.

Kansas City Cancer Center Oncology Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Bingham, MS, ANP-BC, AOCNP, said people should look out for marks that are asymmetrical, have grown, changed color or have a diameter larger than a pencil eraser.

“It’s very easy to recognize those four things,” Bingham said. “These are things that are new and different.”

Bingham encourages people to limit exposure to the sun.

“Skin cancers are 100 percent preventative if you limit your exposure,” she said.

Bingham also said people should stay away from tanning beds.

“It’s usually not something that you think about when you are young and vibrant,” she said. “It’s the long-term effect of using those now that causes the problem.”

May marked Skin Cancer Awareness Month. As the month winds down, Bingham encourages people to receive skin exams and use a sun block with SPF 15 or higher.

“This is a preventable cancer and it’s just a matter of monitoring your activities,” Bingham said.

Donnelly said he now avoids sun exposure, although he did not in his younger years.

“I was a big Cancun patron for 25 years. Every year we’d go down there and lay in the sun,” Donnelly said.

Donnelly has changed his sunbathing ways and he recommends that others do the same.

“Use the block. Stay out of the sun unless you’ve got the sun block on,” he said.

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