Are older or younger people most affected by skin cancers?
Dr. Kraemer: Melanomas more often occur in younger people than do basal and squamous cell carcinomas. The average age of someone with basal cell and squamous cell is 50 years old. What is xeroderma pigmentosum? Dr. Kraemer: XP is a genetic condition characterized by a sensitivity to all sources of ultraviolet radiation. XP patients have an increased susceptibility to developing all kinds of skin cancers. Their chances of developing skin cancer is about 1,000 times the normal amount. We discovered that they have defective DNA repair genes. We found that XP can occur in all races-not just people you would generally think of as getting skin cancer. How do these defective DNA repair genes relate to developing skin cancer? Dr. Kraemer: Ultraviolet (UV) radiation penetrates the skin and damages the DNA. The DNA repair genes may repair the damaged cells, the damaged cells may die or, in other cases, the cells try to continue working and replicate the DNA, but because of the damage, there is a
