What Laura Bush Can Teach You About Skin Cancer

Dec. 19, 2006 — -- First lady Laura Bush is just one of the 1.3 million Americans who will be diagnosed with skin cancer this year. Squamous cell carcinoma, which Bush had surgically removed from her right leg in early November, is the second most common type of skin cancer.

ABC News White House correspondent Jessica Yellin reports that the first lady has kept a brisk schedule this month despite the surgery. She has already attended 23 holiday receptions, and she'll be attending her 24th tonight.

Bush was wise to act early. Doctors quickly performed a biopsy and then removed the growth, so she benefited from early detection and treatment.

The first lady's office said the cancer will require no further treatment, and that this is her first experience with the disease.

Skin cancer is the most common type of all cancers. One in five Americans will get skin cancer at some point in their lifetime. But even with so many people affected, there is good news -- skin cancer is almost always curable if caught early.

There are three main types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and malignant melanoma.

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common of the three and hardly ever spreads to other parts of the body, but can grow to large sizes and become locally destructive. It usually occurs on the face and may look like a pink mole, a pimple, or a pearly-colored bump.

Squamous cell carcinoma is most often found on sun-exposed areas and can look like a rough patch of skin or a red scaling bump. If left untreated, squamous cell carcinoma can spread to other parts of the body.

Malignant melanoma, the third most common type of skin cancer, is the most serious type of skin cancer and accounts for 75 percent of all skin cancer-related deaths.

The first lady's squamous cell carcinoma diagnosis shows how important early detection of skin cancer is. Depending on the type of surgery she had, she now has a greater than 95 percent chance of never having to worry about her skin cancer coming back in the same spot.

Still, now that Bush has had one skin cancer, she is at higher risk for getting a second skin cancer during her lifetime and should see her dermatologist every six to 12 months for skin examinations.

"While the vast majority of people who develop this type of skin cancer can be successfully treated usually with surgery alone, squamous cell carcinoma does account for about 2000 deaths a year," said Dr. Frederick Beddingfield, a dermatologic surgeon and assistant clinical professor at UCLA.