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Q: Dry skin and cancer ?
asked by: Numete on December 8th, 2008
New User
Hey,

About 7 months ago I went for the first time to get checked for skin cancer. I had a mole biopsied and it came back fine.

Now I have another problem. For months and months, I've had this weird spot on my foot. It was even there when I went to the dermatologist 7 months ago, but it's recently changed. It was a spot that was slightly red/pink in color, but the skin was just like the skin anywhere else on my foot. The woman who examined me asked about it and I told her it's been there for a while. She didn't seem that concerned.

But recently it's gotten flaky, like it's dry skin. It's flaky and very dry. It's making me nervous and I want to go to the dermatologist again, but I have no insurance. I'm just going to take the hit and go anyway, but I'm wondering what you guys think. Does it sound like skin cancer? Sad
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MandMs
replied on December 9th, 2008
Extremely eHealthy
Does the spot feel rough on touch, and, sore or painful when fingers or clothing rub against it?
Is the size of this lesion between the size of a pencil point to that of an eraser?
Do you have a history of cumulative sun exposure?
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Numete
replied on December 9th, 2008
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It's definitely rough to the touch. It's not sore or painful, except when I won't stop playing around with it. If I poke and play with it, it gets sore. But I just touched it right now and there's no pain, it's just rough.

It's bigger than the sizes you mentioned. It's more like...well, I'm having a hard time explaining how big it is, but it's bigger than the size of an eraser. It's not huge but it's bigger than that.

I'm very fair skinned. For years, I didn't really leave the house that much so I thought I was pretty safe when it came to skin cancer. But when I was younger, I would go out pretty often. I always only recently started wearing sunscreen every time I went out in the summer (which wasn't a whole lot, but still)

What do you think?
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MandMs
replied on December 10th, 2008
Extremely eHealthy
Small, rough spot (flat or elevated), reddish in color (unusual shades like light, dark, pink, red or a fusion of the two), that is scaly on top, is very suggestive for actinic keratosis, or, solar keratosis.
Fair-skinned people are the ones who are at greatest risk for developing these lesions.
The main reason for its appearance is chronical sun exposure without suitable protection.
Actinic keratoses are precancerous (premalignant) lesions, meaning that they can eventually turn into a case of skin cancer (relatively few of them actually become cancers, and, the process typically takes years).
It takes many years or even decades for keratoses to develop (the predisposing sun exposure may have occurred many years ago).
Although, most commonly found in sun-exposed areas of the body such as the face, ears, and back of the hands, these lesion can also occur on the foot.
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Anonymous
replied on December 11th, 2008
Thank you for your reply Smile
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