Can Skin cancer spread by touch?
We know that it is a very delicate issue which makes you tense, which is, if skin cancer can spread by touching people who are suffering from this medical issue. But no, you can totally relax because skin cancer is not contagious. That is why you cannot have cancer from another patient suffering from skin cancer. Not only touch but any sort of close contact with that person is not harmful. The cancer is not contagious because the cells of cancer from the patients of skin cancer cannot live inside the body of another person who is healthy. That is because the immune system of the healthy person will find out, locate and then destroy the foreign cells that are derived from another person or thing and it includes the cancer cell too.
So, although skin cancer is definitely not continuous, there are still some reasons due to which people think that cancer can spread from an infected person to another true touch and the reasons are many.
So let’s look up some reasons for it.
Happening of skin cancer from infections
Some of the types of skin cancers can happen after some sort of virus or bacteria infections, so many people have the misunderstanding that they got the infection from some cancer patient only. 33.5% of skin cancer happens because of some severe infections that includes bacteria, parasites and viruses. But they are sure that the infections cannot spread from one person to another although the infections definitely play a key role in developing 7% of the skin cancers. This is the reason why many people think that cancer is catching them.
Skin cancer is not contagious because it can not spread in any of the ways given below:
- Having protected or unprotected sex with a skin cancer patient
- Kissing, smooching or exchanging of the speech in through some ways like sharing a toothbrush or utensils
- Sharing meals with the infected person
- Using the same toilet seat after the patient
- Breathing in the same year with someone with skin cancer is breathing out.
There is a very rare or almost nil chance of having cancer after coming into contact with the blood of a skin cancer patient. All this is because skin cancer happens only if there is mutation or damage in the DNA which generates or creates the healthy cells.
Inheriting cancers from family members
If you think it very carefully then you shall get to understand that if skin cancer were supposed to be contagious then the spread out which would be similar to that of the flues like chicken pox for common cold. Then the cancer outbreak could have even turned into a pandemic similar to that of the current situation of covid-19, if it would have been spread through touch. Higher rates of skin cancer can also be expected from the families or friends of people having cancer. Also if it was contagious then maximum of the health professionals who deal with carcinoma would also be affected so this is definitely not the case.
Now you can say that what about some of the families where skin cancer happens in most of the family members? For this question we can confidently answer that although cancer might happen often in some families, that does not mean that the affected family members have spread cancer to others. There are some other reasons for which most of the family members must be affected and they are as follows:
- Family member sharing the same genes can inherit cancer due to the structure of the genes
- If the members of the families follow some similar lifestyle features which are unhealthy like smoking, drinking or getting exposed to highly concentrated UV rays.
- Or it is also possible that all the members might have been exposed to the similar kind of cancer causing agent.
Transfer of skin cancer at the time of pregnancy
Even when a woman is suffering from skin cancer during her pregnancy period then that skin carcinoma rarely affects the newborn. Although some of the time it may happen that the skin cancer gets spread from the mother to the baby through the placenta which connects the baby with her mother but it cannot affect the baby directly from skin to skin touch.
Link between organ transplant and cancer transfer
During some of the rare cases it might also happen that the cells of cancer situated in an organ of the donor promotes skin cancer to spread after going inside the person to whom the organ has been donated. Statistics say that the chances of these cases are 0.2% and this does not happen mostly because the immune system of the acceptor locates the cells that are not their own and thereafter destroys them. But people who received the organ transplant from donors should be taking regular medicines and visiting their doctor to deal with such cases because the body already is affected and thus their immune system also weakens. That is why, their body cannot attack properly and strike the transplanted organ. But don’t worry because the organ donors are always screened carefully for reducing down the risks of cancer.
However, still some of the recent studies have confirmed that skin cancer is becoming a very common problem for the people who are provided with organ transplants. This is so because the drugs which are given usually reduce the risk of the rejection of organs and do not work much over the cancer cells which are spreading occasionally from the donated organs. As with the drugs we can see the immune system slowly so they also might prevent the body of the patient from looking after and attacking the damaged viruses or cells which might lead to cancer.
Risk factors of skin carcinoma
Generally the risk of developing some of the skin carcinoma increases while a person is exposed to some of the infectious bacteria or viruses such as human papillomavirus or HPV as they are contagious. So instead of fearing that you would be catching skin cancer through touch, be aware that the sun burns because statistics say that having 5 or more sunburns in your life doubles the risk of having Melanoma. But if detected early the rate of 5 year survival regarding Melanoma is 99%. Although the exact number of cases about skin carcinoma are still unknown as many individuals who get diagnosed with the cancer which are not life threatening get easily treated, so they are not registered.
So it’s high time that we have to break the stigma that cancer is contagious because even in the 21st century many women are suffering from cancer and airforce to stay away from their families, friends and loved ones because they are afraid of spreading cancer through their touch. Technically this makes the person suffering from cancer feel alone and isolated. So, come later spread the awareness that no one can catch skin cancer from them who are already suffering by touching. Let us start by ourselves by reaching out to the people who are suffering with skin cancer to support them and boost their morale so that they can fight with this life threatening disease even more confidently!
References:
https://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/skin-cancer-facts/
https://www.healthline.com/health/is-cancer-contagious
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/is-cancer-contagious.html