Malignant Melanoma

Although the fairer you are, the greater the risk of developing skin cancer from exposure to sunlight, darker-skinned people are not immune to the ravages of the sun. "I've seen darker-skinned Latins die of malignant melanoma," said Dr. Rube Pardo, a University of Miami assistant professor of dermatology. African-Americans are not immune, either, despite having more protective melanin in their skin. About 9,000 cases of skin cancer and 225 of melanoma occur annually among 32 million African-Americans.

American health officials are launching a nationwide public-education campaign this summer to combat what they say are alarming and unexpectedly rapid increases in the incidence of skin cancer. Health experts are particularly concerned about the skyrocketing rate of malignant melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer, which has increased 83 percent since 1980. While nobody knows for sure why the rate has soared in recent years, many think that changing American lifestyles that expose more people to the sun are a major factor.

If you're starting work on the perfect tan, there's something health professionals want you to keep in mind. May is national skin-cancer month. A recent survey by the American Academy of Dermatology in Illinois, which promotes the month, showed people know the sun causes skin cancer, but that they were taking few precautions. "The big emphasis on having a tan, being glamorous and looking healthy is contributing to the fact that skin-cancer incidents are on the rise," said academy spokesman Bill Heineke.

TRACKING TRANQUILIZERS Think the big city will drive you to the bottle - of tranquilizers, that is? Not so! The South, especially folks in Tennessee and Kentucky, leads the nation in tranquilizer consumption. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the number of people downing such minor tranqs as Valium and Xanax was 0 to 20 percent above the national average. Delaware, like California, was more than 20 percent below. That's according to the July issue of American Demographics. ASTHMA CLUES Asthma is on the increase.

The sun is slowly setting on the summertime tan. Consider: Sales of sunscreens are rapidly gaining on tanning products. Fashion magazines, longtime promoters of the image that bronze is beautiful, are featuring some paleface models in recent issues. Dermatologists say their appointment books are filled with patients worried about the sun's damaging effects: skin cancer, wrinkles, premature aging. Children as young as 5 are being targeted in a new nationwide campaign aimed at teaching kids that too much sun can be dangerous.

Though it's best to keep babies out of the sun, the American Academy of Pediatrics now says it is OK to apply sunscreen to children younger than 6 months. The group had previously discouraged the use of sunscreen on infants, but in a new policy statement it says there is no evidence that putting lotion on small areas of a baby's skin causes harm. Avoiding sun exposure completely or dressing babies and older children in lightweight, long-sleeved clothing are still the academy's top recommendations.

Here comes Memorial Day weekend, Sun Bunny. Time to head for Bakery Beach to fricassee your frame. Gotta get that wheat-toast look, right? Burnt is beautiful, right? Wrong, Sun Bunny. New ideas about tanning are abroad on the beaches and, basically, the word for this summer is: Cool it. A recent report by the National Institutes of Health says suntans can lead to skin cancer, a weakened immune system and skin that wrinkles and ages before its time. All forms of tanning are potentially hazardous to your health, there is no such thing as a healthy tan and tanning is visible evidence of injury to the skin, the NIH report concluded.

There was a time, not too long ago, when Pat would have found a steamy, sunny afternoon irresistible. Like so many other Americans, she would have put on a bathing suit, grabbed a towel, a beach chair or a lounge and set herself up for a broiling session in the great outdoors. Wednesday afternoon was steamy and sunny, but Pat wasn't in the great outdoors. She was in the Parkview Division of Metropolitan Hospital, in Juniata Park, for a free skin cancer detection and prevention program.

Former Flyers coach Roger Neilson said yesterday that lymph nodes removed from his groin area showed no signs of cancer. "I've got some good news," Neilson, an Ottawa assistant coach, said following the team's morning skate in Vancouver. "All the nodes they took out were not infected. Let's hope they got it all. " On Friday, Neilson, 66, was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. Doctors at Hahnemann University Hospital removed the lymph nodes and a lesion from the back of Neilson's right knee.

As spring gradually gives way to summer, and the last vestiges of the long, cold hibernation are put aside, it is time to get out there in the sunshine and feel alive again. Biking, softball, gardening, boating or just good old sunbathing - feeling that warming glow all over your stiff, winter-racked body. Get a bit of color back in the cheeks, a little shot of vitality in the skin tone. It'll make you look good, and it's good for you, right? Perhaps you should sit down.

Former Flyers coach Roger Neilson said yesterday that lymph nodes removed from his groin area showed no signs of cancer. "I've got some good news," Neilson, an Ottawa assistant coach, said following the team's morning skate in Vancouver. "All the nodes they took out were not infected. Let's hope they got it all. " On Friday, Neilson, 66, was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. Doctors at Hahnemann University Hospital removed the lymph nodes and a lesion from the back of Neilson's right knee.

Though it's best to keep babies out of the sun, the American Academy of Pediatrics now says it is OK to apply sunscreen to children younger than 6 months. The group had previously discouraged the use of sunscreen on infants, but in a new policy statement it says there is no evidence that putting lotion on small areas of a baby's skin causes harm. Avoiding sun exposure completely or dressing babies and older children in lightweight, long-sleeved clothing are still the academy's top recommendations.

We can blame the French for popularizing the consumption of snails, harboring convicted Philadelphia murderer Ira Einhorn - and increasing the incidence of skin cancer. It was Coco Chanel, the famous French fashion designer, who is credited with popularizing the suntan after being spotted in Cannes in the 1920s, deeply bronzed after a yachting trip from Paris. Before that, it was perfectly acceptable, even preferable, to walk around with a pale complexion. "Until Coco Chanel made the suntan popular, it was considered a sign that you were a working-class laborer who toiled outside in the fields.

The Phillies revealed yesterday that Darren Daulton had a malignant mole removed from his stomach last week, but a doctor familiar with the case said that the skin cancer was arrested early, and that the all-star catcher's chances for complete recovery were nearly 100 percent. According to Steven Greenbaum, the chief of dermatological surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where the surgery was performed last Tuesday, the type of skin cancer affecting Daulton was malignant melanoma, one of the disease's three most serious forms.

Although the fairer you are, the greater the risk of developing skin cancer from exposure to sunlight, darker-skinned people are not immune to the ravages of the sun. "I've seen darker-skinned Latins die of malignant melanoma," said Dr. Rube Pardo, a University of Miami assistant professor of dermatology. African-Americans are not immune, either, despite having more protective melanin in their skin. About 9,000 cases of skin cancer and 225 of melanoma occur annually among 32 million African-Americans.

TRACKING TRANQUILIZERS Think the big city will drive you to the bottle - of tranquilizers, that is? Not so! The South, especially folks in Tennessee and Kentucky, leads the nation in tranquilizer consumption. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the number of people downing such minor tranqs as Valium and Xanax was 0 to 20 percent above the national average. Delaware, like California, was more than 20 percent below. That's according to the July issue of American Demographics. ASTHMA CLUES Asthma is on the increase.

Tim Mark, 41, was dying of cancer and his only hope was a dangerous and debilitating experimental treatment that had very little chance of working. Mark knew the odds were very much against him when he walked into the small examining room at the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center in February to apply for the program. Sitting on the edge of an examining table, only a few feet from the doctor dressed in a long white coat, Mark listened as the details of the frightening therapy were presented to him. The treatment takes three weeks and is given in the intensive-care unit, Kevin Fox said, because it's a new type of drug and may precipitate a heart attack or shock or respiratory failure.

Here comes Memorial Day weekend, Sun Bunny. Time to head for Bakery Beach to fricassee your frame. Gotta get that wheat-toast look, right? Burnt is beautiful, right? Wrong, Sun Bunny. New ideas about tanning are abroad on the beaches and, basically, the word for this summer is: Cool it. A recent report by the National Institutes of Health says suntans can lead to skin cancer, a weakened immune system and skin that wrinkles and ages before its time. All forms of tanning are potentially hazardous to your health, there is no such thing as a healthy tan and tanning is visible evidence of injury to the skin, the NIH report concluded.

The sun is slowly setting on the summertime tan. Consider: Sales of sunscreens are rapidly gaining on tanning products. Fashion magazines, longtime promoters of the image that bronze is beautiful, are featuring some paleface models in recent issues. Dermatologists say their appointment books are filled with patients worried about the sun's damaging effects: skin cancer, wrinkles, premature aging. Children as young as 5 are being targeted in a new nationwide campaign aimed at teaching kids that too much sun can be dangerous.

There was a time, not too long ago, when Pat would have found a steamy, sunny afternoon irresistible. Like so many other Americans, she would have put on a bathing suit, grabbed a towel, a beach chair or a lounge and set herself up for a broiling session in the great outdoors. Wednesday afternoon was steamy and sunny, but Pat wasn't in the great outdoors. She was in the Parkview Division of Metropolitan Hospital, in Juniata Park, for a free skin cancer detection and prevention program.