Here's a report from dermatologists about athletes, the sun and the risks of skin cancer:
Skin cancer also occurs in athletes who do not compete in the sun. During training-camp physicals in 2002, National Hockey League player Mark Cullen's health took a negative turn. His doctor detected a suspicious mole under his arm and it was discovered to be melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. "It was a shock," Cullen said. "Anytime you hear the word 'cancer', especially feeling that I was a young, healthy person, I was shocked. It was a scary time in my life and while I'm glad to have gone through it, I'm glad to be healthy right now." It took three separate surgeries to remove Cullenīs growth, surrounding lymph nodes, and some skin. Luckily, Cullen did not have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation, as he initially believed. Almost three years later and with regular six-month checkups, Cullen is cancer-free. "The skin cancer diagnosis helped me prioritize my life in general," Cullen said, "and made me realize what was important to me -- to take a step back and look at your life and where you're headed right now because you never know how long you're going to get." More than 1 million new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year and one American dies of melanoma almost every hour (every 65 minutes). Of these cases, more than 108,000 are melanoma, a cancer that claims nearly 8,000 lives annually.
