Is basic skin cancer contagious?

Many patients and friends are always worried about whether skin cancer is contagious and whether it will be transmitted to their loved ones. Some friends around patients are also worried about being infected because of the ugly external manifestations of skin cancer. So I will talk about whether skin cancer is contagious here! Let everyone know about this knowledge.

Skin cancer is not contagious. All tumors are not contagious. Some tumors are hereditary. Excessive exposure to harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight is the primary cause of skin cancer. UV radiation damages DNA and suppresses the human immune system, thereby accelerating the growth of tumor cells.

According to the American Cancer Society, 9,800 skin cancers killed people in the U.S. this year. The largest group was malignant melanoma, which accounted for 7,600 cases, with another 2,200 caused by basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Transmission simply means that a disease spreads from one person to another through some means.

Infection requires three conditions: infection source, transmission route and susceptible population. Clinical data prove that cancer patients themselves are not infection sources, so they are not contagious.

So, don't worry! Skin diseases are not contagious. So, you can safely interact with skin cancer patients without looking at them with strange eyes. Of course, as a skin cancer patient, you don't have to worry about infecting others and deliberately avoid others.