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>> Tonight.
>> He wanted to go to practice one night.
>> I just couldn't shoot the ball. My leg just started hurting.
>> I would go to this gym and I would tan Monday through Friday. I used a tanning bed
more than I used outside light.
>> An ABC 27 special presentation.
>> They wanted to do x-rays right away, and they came back and said it's some sort of
tumor.
>> I thought my world was ending.
>> I had a phone call from my dermatologist's office, we got the results back, you have
malignant melanoma.
>> Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute presents Skin and Bone Cancer, a matter of facts, brought
to you by Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
>> Good evening, I'm Chuck Rhodes. Tonight we're here to learn about two types of cancer.
Cancer that starts in the bone is not common. The most common type of bone cancer in both
adults and children is osteosarcoma. With modern surgical techniques, 85% of people
who have bone cancer in an arm or a leg won't need an amputation. But first, with all this
waiting for the warm weather to get here, but that time of year when many of us want
to get that perfect tan, or maybe even just spend more time outside in the sun. As you'll
see tonight, you want to take some precautions, that's very important. 1 in 5 Americans will
develop skin cancer during his or her lifetime. One person dies almost every hour of melanoma.
Melanoma's the most common form of cancer for young adults 25 to 29 years old. Tonight,
specialists from Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute are at the ABC 27 call center to
answer your questions. Call the number on the bottom of the screen, or you can just
e-mail your questions to the show at questions@abc27.com. Doctor Heath Mackley will answer your e-mail
questions throughout tonight's show, and of course all calls and e-mails are confidential.
And we begin tonight with Deborah Pinkerton to share one patient's story. Good evening,
Deborah.
>> Hi, Chuck. It's that time of year when we're planning summer vacations. Time to be
out in the sun, but don't forget your sunscreen. A Cumberland County woman will tell you why.
41-year old Paula Belleck [phonetic] can't get enough hugs and kisses from her 2-year
old son Eddie.
>> Yay, good job buddy. There you go.
>> Memories in the making, something Paula and her husband Ed cherish, because last year
Paula wasn't sure she would be here to experience them.
>> I think that a lot of people think this can't happen to me, and that's how I felt
for a long time. I would have never imagined Paula Belleck and cancer, or Paula Belleck
has cancer in the same sentence, ever.
>> Doctors diagnosed Paula with melanoma. A likely cause? Tanning beds. Paula started
using them when she was 21.
>> I found a place that you could get unlimited tanning. I would get up in the morning before
work, I would go to this gym, and I would tan. And I would usually stay in the tanning
bed for about a half an hour -- 20 minutes to a half an hour, almost every day of the
week, Monday through Friday. And I probably did that I'm going to say maybe 6 months straight.
>> Paula cut back, but continued using tanning beds for about 14 years.
>> I would say on and off I would go definitely every year in preparation for something, you
know, whether it was a wedding I was in, or a vacation I was preparing to go to so I didn't
burn. But I can say that within those 14 years I used a tanning bed more than I used outside
light -- natural light to tan.
>> Paula started seeing a dermatologist yearly. There were a few moles the doctor was watching.
>> Before my appointment, I said to my husband, you know, I was doing skin checks regularly,
you know, just checking my body, and I had the mole that was on my shoulder, and it was
the mole that was on the watch and wait from the dermatologist. And I said to him, you
know what? I'm just going to have her take that mole off. It's just -- that's the only
one that is just bugging me.
>> Doctors removed the mole. A week later, Paula got a call. It was her dermatologist.
>> I was driving home, and she said I want to tell you we got the results back from,
you know, the mole on your shoulder, and you have malignant melanoma. I mean you hear the
word cancer and you think cancer, you think death, you think -- your life flashes before
your eyes, and you don't know, you know, one day you're planning to have a baby and, you
know, buy a house, and it's hard.
[ Music ]
>> I remember as clear as day, we walked out, that was walking out in the shop at work,
my phone rang and I answered it, and there's my wife I could barely understand her. She
was crying and at first I thought she was in an accident. She said I have cancer. I
was in a loud shop, and I just remember that it was like everything went completely quiet
to me. It was just like my heart just sunk.
>> Paula found out this news a few days before Mother's Day.
>> It was a hard Mother's Day, you know, just because I'm thinking is this my last? Is this
-- what does this mean? I mean it's just unbelievable where your mind goes.
>> We were still just so confused, so hurt, so, you know, not -- the unexpected, not knowing
what was going to happen next.
>> She had a melanoma. The tumor that she had is a malignant skin cancer with a potential
for it spreading.
>> He explained to me that I was in the very early stages of malignant melanoma, which
was a good sign. The survival rate was very high.
>> He explained in detail to us what we saw, what was going to be removed, explained the
severity of it.
>> I just wanted him to tell me what does this mean? Am I going to be able to be here
for my children? Am I going to be able to be here to see my son, you know, go through
school and sports and college, and, you know, whatever else his life puts in front of him,
am I going to be here for that? And he said I think you will be.
>> This is the area of the primary tumor. She had surgery to remove margins of healthy
tissue, which unfortunately had to have like a long scar on her arm.
>> More than a week after the surgery, Paula's prayers were answered.
>> I got the phone call on the 18th of July, and I was still home healing, that my test
results came back that I was cancer-free. And it was great.
>> Yeah, I just remember her saying hey babe, guess what? I'm cancer-free, and just very
emotional, very emotional [inaudible] the phone. Ready? 1, 2, 3. There it was, you got
a hold of that one buddy.
>> Great news that will make this Mother's Day so much better.
>> I don't know what we're doing, but it doesn't matter. It's going to definitely be better
than last year.
>> And Paula hopes her story makes a difference for others. Her cancer was detected early
enough so she did not need radiation or chemotherapy. Chuck, back to you.
>> Thank you, Deborah. It sounds like a great story. Joining us tonight now is Doctor Rogerio
Neves, the Deputy Director of the Penn State Hershey Melanoma Center. Now doctor, Paula
was diagnosed with melanoma. Talk about how dangerous is it?
>> Well melanoma is the most dangerous skin cancer, because the fact that it can spread
to other organs. And melanoma is mostly caused by UV radiation. There are many other causes,
like genetic, but UV is the most important. So UV radiation from the sun, UV radiation
from the artificial tanning beds.
>> Now I noticed she had surgery but did not use chemotherapy or radiation. Is this typical
how you treat melanoma?
>> Well hopefully that will be typical, but it's not. Paula was caught in the very beginning,
so early stages are the best because we can cure the patient. But not all patients get
this situation, so that's why it's important to come to a service which [inaudible] when
we have all the specialties, because he may need chemo or radiation therapy.
>> What can we do to prevent it?
>> Well, to prevent -- avoid, of course the UV radiation use a sunscreen, protect with
the clothes, and don't go -- never ever go to artificial tanning bed salons.
>> Talk about sunscreen. We talked briefly in the lobby, what do we look for? When I
go out to buy a sunscreen, what's good for me? What works?
>> Well first thing you look for a sunscreen that has at least the protection FPS 30, but
also protects from -- against UVAs and UVB. So that's the most important. There are some
sunscreens that goes higher, you know, 100, you don't need that. At least 30, it's easier
to apply and reapply often, if you just [inaudible] to the pool or to the sea or the ocean, reapply
it.
>> Well I was one that thought the higher the number, the better off I was. But you're
saying just more often to use the lower number.
>> Well the difference in protection is minimal. Of course if you want to use it, you can.
But it's much more difficult to apply. So at least with the 30 you can apply it more
often, and it will protect you as well.
>> What about tanning beds and the risk of cancer?
>> Oh that is the highest risk for cancer -- skin cancer nowadays. And we have very
new data coming from the Mayo Clinic showing that we had increased in 8 times the number
of the young women with melanoma, just because they use tanning beds. And that is very easy
to understand, because you don't burn in those tanning beds. If you are outside in the sun,
you get burned, and you look for shade. But in tanning beds you have the radiation.
>> That's very impressive. Well thank you for joining us here tonight, doctor. We appreciate
that.
>> Oh, it was my pleasure.