The Summerland Advocate-Messenger - Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community

When people talk about skin cancer, the type that most people think about is melanoma.  This skin cancer follows the ABCDE rules for diagnosis.  A – asymmetry, B – irregular border, C – more than one color, D – diameter more than six millimeters and E – expanding in size. However, these rules will not help find the most common type of skin cancer called a basal cell carcinoma.  

Unlike melanomas, basal cell carcinomas are often symmetric with regular borders in the early stages. They are usually one color, being the same as the surrounding skin, but with a pearlescent sheen, al...