Sun damaged skin can develop to a skin cancer. Treating sun damaged or pre-cancerous skin lesions can prevent them from progressing to skin cancer

The pre-cancerous skin lesion I diagnose and treat include:

• Actinic keratosis: These are very common, and many people have them. They are caused by ultraviolet (UV) damage to the skin. Some actinic keratoses can turn into squamous cell skin cancer, and because of this, the lesions are often called precancer.
• Bowens disease (squamous cell carcinoma in situ); Bowen’s disease appears as red scaly patches. Sometimes they look like raised spots or warts. Often the affected skin looks red and sore. Bowenoid papulosis usually occurs on the pubic or genital area in men and women
• Melanoma in-situ is an early form of melanoma in which the malignant cells are confined to the epidermis, hence it is often reported as ‘in situ’ melanoma. It occurs in sun damaged skin so is generally found on the face or neck, particularly the nose and cheek.