Skin Cancer and the Aeromodeler
by Dr. Joseph Gadzia
Introduction
When I started aeromodeling nine years ago, I had just finished my dermatology residency and had successfully started a thriving practice. Since I was a kid, I had always wanted to fly remote-control airplanes, but I never had the money or the time, being either a poor high school/college student or an overworked medical student/resident.
I finally reached a point in my life where I had both the time and the money to participate in a hobby I had always enjoyed. Little did I know that my professional life and hobby would soon collide.
It wasn’t long after I joined the Jayhawk Model Masters in Lawrence, Kansas, that I developed true friendships. Through these interactions I soon became not only their friend, but also their physician. After diagnosing two members with melanoma and three members with basal cell or squamous cell carcinomas of the skin, it was clear our hobby puts members at risk for developing skin cancer.
I wrote this article to give aeromodelers the knowledge they need to protect themselves from the sun’s harmful rays and to encourage members with suspicious spots to see a dermatologist before it’s too late.
The sun and ultraviolet radiation
The sun is the life-giver on our planet. It provides the light and warmth we need to survive. However, it also emits two types of radiation that penetrate the atmosphere, the clouds, and even layers of our skin: ultraviolet A and B (UVA and UVB). These nonvisible forms of light interact with the DNA of our skin cells, causing damage to the genes that control cell division.
When these cells are irreversibly damaged, they lose the ability to control themselves and repeatedly divide, ravaging nutrients and space from nearby normal cells. If the damaged cells lose their anchors to the skin, they can migrate to other areas of the body as metastases. Depending on the skin cancer type, this can rapidly be fatal because the cancer destroys normal cells in other organs and stops their proper function.
More than 3.7 million skin cancers were diagnosed in 2008, and the incidence is increasing drastically. There are many different types of skin cancer; I will cover the most common ones relevant to outdoor hobbyists.
Types of skin cancer
The three most common types of skin cancer are:
- Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) — derived from cells in the hair follicles.
- Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) — derived from squamous cells (the cells you see and feel when you rub your skin).
- Melanoma — derived from melanocytes, the cells that give your skin its pigment.
Precancerous lesions (Actinic keratosis)
Sun damage does not always lead directly to cancer. Sometimes there is an early form of damage termed precancerous lesions, medically called actinic keratosis (actinic = sun/light, keratosis = scaly spot).
These lesions are often better felt than seen and present as rough, "sandpaper-ish" spots on the skin. They can also appear as thick, red, scaly spots. These early precancers can usually be treated by your physician without surgery.
Common treatments to remove these and reduce progression to cancer include:
- Freezing the lesions with liquid nitrogen
- Application of topical chemotherapy creams
- Treatment with phototoxic chemicals
These methods usually involve minimal downtime.
Failure to treat actinic keratosis increases the risk of progression to SCC. Roughly 5% to 10% of actinic keratoses left untreated will progress to SCC; however, SCC can also develop without a preceding actinic keratosis.
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)
SCC is the second most common type of skin cancer. Fortunately, if caught early, it is usually easily removed and cured; however, it can metastasize to other organs if left untreated. SCC can spread rapidly to lymph nodes, lungs, and other organs, which can result in death.
Some SCCs grow very rapidly, even within weeks. Treatment is usually surgical. On the body, these cancers are often removed with a standard surgical margin; the specimen is examined by a pathologist to ensure clear margins, which typically results in about a 90% cure rate.
On the face, these cancers can spread beneath the skin along tissue planes and be invisible to patient and physician. A special surgery called Mohs surgery is often used. Mohs involves cutting around the cancer with thin surgical margins and immediately processing the tissue to visualize nearly all margins at once. This allows for high cure rates (98% or greater) while sparing tissue in delicate facial areas for the best cosmetic outcome.
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC)
BCCs are the most common type of skin cancer (in fact, the most common type of any cancer). Fortunately, BCCs rarely metastasize, even if left untreated for years, though it is possible. However, they can be extremely aggressive locally and may grow large and deep without obvious signs until surgery.
Surgical excision is the treatment of choice, although radiation and topical chemotherapy may be used in some cases. Mohs surgery is often the preferred treatment for facial BCCs because of its high cure rate and tissue-sparing advantage.
Melanoma
Melanoma is the most dangerous of the skin cancers. If not caught early, it spreads rapidly throughout the body, particularly to lymph nodes, liver, and brain. Once melanoma is beyond the skin, it is very difficult to treat and responds poorly to radiation and chemotherapy.
Because early diagnosis is critical, aeromodelers should know what to look for. Dermatologists use the ABCDEs of melanoma:
- A — Asymmetry: one half does not match the other
- B — Borders: irregular edges
- C — Colors: multiple or uneven colors
- D — Diameter: greater than 6 mm (about the size of a pencil eraser)
- E — Everything else: changing, growing, bleeding, or painful
If the answer to any of these is "yes," have a dermatologist examine the spot. This does not necessarily mean it is cancer, but it must be ruled out. Remember, these rules apply to melanoma, but any new growth that does not disappear after several weeks should be checked—there are many types of skin cancer and they can look different.
Protection for aeromodelers
What can an aeromodeler do to protect against skin cancer? Short of becoming a full-time indoor modeler, protect yourself from the sun. UV radiation is invisible and penetrates clouds, so damage can occur even when it’s cloudy.
Sunscreen and protective clothing are our best defenses. Common recommendations:
- Apply enough sunscreen: If you were going to the beach, you would need about 1 ounce of sunscreen to adequately cover your body (roughly a quarter of an average-size bottle).
- Reapply frequently: Sunscreen lasts approximately two hours at best, so reapply every two hours.
- Choose a broad-spectrum sunscreen: Use one with at least SPF 45 and that covers both UVA and UVB radiation.
- Wear protective hats: A study determined that for every inch of brim on your hat, you decrease your chance of getting skin cancer on your face by about 10%. Choose a brim that still allows you to see your aircraft comfortably.
Enjoy flying your aircraft—but make sure you can still see it under the brim of your sombrero!
—Joseph Gadzia [email protected]
Sources
- American Cancer Society — www.cancer.org
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
