This is Ask Okanagan with Phil Johnson, a quick take with trusted local professionals. This is Ask Okanagan, brought to you by the Dr. Ben Wiese Private Skin Cancer Clinic.

In studio with me, Dr. Wiese. Dr. Wiese, I have a very good friend, woman, ultimately discovered she had a melanoma in under her arm and her armpit, and if it hadn’t been for a bra strap rubbing on it, she would probably never have discovered she had it.

Absolutely. You know, Phil, I think that is one of the biggest misperceptions, specifically in skin cancer medicine, is that patients think that you can only develop skin cancer on sun-exposed areas, and that is completely incorrect. Skin cancer, you can develop anywhere on your body. And I always tell the young docs that come and train with me, if you’re not going to search for it, you’re not going to find it. Skin cancer, you know, if we think about Bob Marley, he died from melanoma on his toe. And of course, that is due to a genetic predisposition.

So UV light definitely plays a role in developing skin cancer, but that’s not the only risk factor. It is also about genetics, specifically the amount of moles that you have, and then also the amount of family members that you have, you know, that’s, that’s exposed, you know, to a specific gene.

Does a family tree come to play here?

Yes, absolutely. There’s two ways of thinking about it. The first is, you know, the family tree. It’s hard because I think as soon as you go a little bit further than your grandparents, you know, we don’t know. I think, you know, a lot of people just passed away much earlier on in life, so they don’t even know why they passed away. But definitely when you have a family history and the more family members you have that has had skin cancer, that definitely is very important. Another very, very important factor that most people don’t know about is pancreatic cancer. There’s a specific gene that codes for melanoma. So if you have a family history of pancreatic cancer, you definitely need to make sure to get tested genetically for melanoma as well because that can predispose you. The other way of thinking about it, of course, is, you know, when mom and dad’s genes are combined. That also from an evolutionary point of view, there’s an explosion of genes that happens. And when those genes actually combine, literally just by that happening, that can also predispose you in developing cancer because of course there’s always a mismatch that can happen.

So it is about knowing your family history, but also if you don’t have a family history, looking at your own skin. If you’re blue-eyed, blonde hair, red hair, if you have quite a few moles, make sure that you check your skin and that you’re safe.

Ben Wiese from the Ben Wiese Private Skin Cancer Clinic. Where do people find you?

The easiest would be on my website, drbenwiese.com.
Ask Okanagan with Phil Johnson.