Washington, June 10: Children exposed to the sun even for a short period of time without any protection are at a higher risk of skin cancer, claim experts.
They say that a child`s immune system is not fully developed and they don`t have the kind of biochemical defence mechanism which normally helps an adult`s body catch at least some of the cells damaged by the sun and repair them before cancer has a chance to develop.


"Anytime you get a sunburn, at any age, your risk of skin cancer goes up. But get that burn before the age of 18, and your risks go up dramatically - and the more times a child experiences sunburn or even sun damage caused by a tan, the greater their future risk of skin cancer," says Dr. Darrell Rigel, a dermatologist from New York University Medical Centre.


One reason, Rigel says, is the cancer-causing effects of the sun are cumulative. Simply put, the earlier that sun damage to the skin starts - which can happen with a tan as well as a burn - the more likely your child is to reach the level of cellular damage that translates into skin cancer, according to a report in HealthScout.

" Over time those cells damaged in childhood become an adult skin cancer," Rigel says.


Earlier this year, research conducted at Harvard`s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston was even more specific in pinpointing the dangers to children. According to Dr. Lynda Chin, it may all come down to the recently discovered Rb pathway - a series of biochemical signals that can sense when damage occurs in a skin cell and immediately shut down its ability to duplicate itself.


"In this way, the Rb pathway can help stop tumours from forming," says Chin, an assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School. However, the more the sun exposure you have, particularly at a young age, the more likely it is the Rb pathway will become damaged and no long able to sense when a skin cell is in trouble.

They suggest that one way to protect children is to make certain they wear a sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15, and to make sure they use the product correctly.
Bureau Report