Skin protection now is the best way to avoid cancer later

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — For high school softball coach Neil Brody, practices and games all begin the same way now.

The fair-skinned Brody slathers himself with sunscreen — SPF 50. He pulls on a large hat to cover his face, ears and neck.

As the Everglades High School assistant walks to the dugout, he asks nearly everyone around him — players, fellow coaches, even fans — if they’re wearing sunscreen.

If they’re not, he is more than willing to hand them his bottle. Then he shows off his “mark of Zorro” — a scar that snakes across his chest.

Brody had a melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer, removed earlier this year.

“People really have no idea how bad this is,” said Brody, 54. “I didn’t even know.”

Brody’s scar is the inspiration for his personal crusade to inform others to the dangers of the sun. Many of Brody’s players didn’t know anything about melanoma until he told them of his diagnosis.

In the height of the spring high school sports season, hundreds of athletes in baseball, softball, water polo, tennis and track are out in the sun for hours a day. Are they protected?

Dermatologists would say no. Few teens understand what all their time in the sun could do to them later in life.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in the United States. This year alone, more than 1 million people learn they have the condition. More than 90 percent of those cases are due to sun exposure.

One blistering sunburn in childhood more than doubles a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life. And the skin of teens is thought to be more vulnerable than adults because their cells are changing more rapidly than adults’, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.

“The kids are pretty naive, but I was like that at 17,” Brody said. “If I had known then what I know now, I would have taken better care of myself.”

Early detection crucial

Brody first noticed the spot he thought was an age mark a year and a half ago. After procrastinating for months, he took his daughter to the dermatologist and asked the doctor to examine his spot.

Brody found himself having biopsies, exams to search for more possible cancers, and eventually surgery to remove the melanoma, a stage IIb/level IV, before cancer spread to his lymph nodes.

He understands he was fortunate. Melanoma is highly curable if detected early and treated.

Brody says it was his years in the sun, as a teen going to the beach and later as a coach, that threatened his life. Which is why he hopes his players and high school athletes across South Florida will listen to his message.

Brody sometimes feels he is fighting an uphill battle, and doctors agree.

“Within the childhood population, skin cancer is low,” said Dr. Elizabeth Alvarez Connelly, an assistant professor of dermatology and pediatrics at the University of Miami. “Kids and teens aren’t in immediate danger, but they’re putting themselves at risk later and that’s why it’s sometimes very hard to convince them to protect themselves now.”

Few teenagers are following basic precautions to protect their skin.

“I usually think about sunscreen when I know I’m going to be in for a long day outside or probably when I go to the beach,” said Flanagan High baseball player Mitch Massard. “That’s it. But when I’m at practice or even at the pool, it doesn’t occur to me. It’s a habit I guess.”

Says St. Thomas Aquinas distance runner Gabriel Lietz: “I don’t really worry about it. I’ll make sure I stay under the umbrella or tent as much as possible, but I don’t wear sunblock because I don’t really like the smell, and I don’t want it dripping all over the place.”

They aren’t the only teens who feel that way.

Only 14 percent of high school students reported routine sunscreen use with an SPF of 15 or higher when outside for more than an hour a day, according to an article published in the Journal of School Health in April 2006. The study showed little change in sunscreen use as measured in 1999, 2001 and 2003.

The study also found that routine sunscreen use is more common among females than males, among younger age groups than among older ones, and among white youth more than minority youth.

Preaching protection

Water polo players, who are most inclined to use sunscreen, face a different challenge. The rules state that in games or tournaments participants aren’t allowed to put on any lotions or creams because they may interfere with play.

Lake Worth water polo coach Kurt Predmore understands the rules. But during practices, which average about 15 to 20 hours a week, he allows players to use sunscreen.

“We don’t really have to talk about it because I see a lot of kids on the pool deck before or after practice with their sunscreen,” Predmore said. “They’re in their swimsuits a lot and they understand they’re not as covered as baseball or softball players.”

For other coaches, getting athletes to protect their skin is a struggle. Cardinal Newman track coach Harry Howell constantly reminds his team to clothe themselves as much as possible.

To reduce heat exhaustion, some boys prefer to run without shirts, while girls prefer jogging or sports bra-type tops. Howell requires his teams to wear T-shirts when practicing.

Sunscreen is something he rarely sees them apply, although some do protect their eyes with sunglasses.

“They don’t seem to be overly concerned,” said Howell, who wears a hat to protect himself from the sun. “I wish they would do more, but sometimes even getting them to wear a shirt is a major issue.

“I think it’s something kids and coaches need to start thinking about, but every day at practice, you’re so hard-pressed to get things done, you don’t always have a chance to talk about it.”

Sometimes, it takes a personal encounter to start the dialogue.

Like Brody, Santaluces baseball coach Nick Franco has dealt with skin cancer. Last year, Franco saw a dermatologist to have several spots on his shoulder and back examined.

Those didn’t prove problematic, but his doctor discovered a small mark on Franco’s nose the 28-year old coach hadn’t noticed. Tests revealed it was basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer that can be easily treated when caught early.

Franco is now extremely cautious when in the sun. He addresses sun protection with both his players and their parents, hoping his age will drive home the point.

“I’m a young guy and I use myself as an example,” Franco said. “Whether they take it seriously or not, I’m not sure. But when I first found out, I told the team and explained that it’s common here in South Florida and that they’re in the sun every day.”

Franco’s concern is justified. To get teens thinking about skin cancer is a tough sell.

“It wasn’t anything I thought about before. (Coach) always tells us to make sure we’re wearing sunscreen, but I still personally don’t always think about it. You never think it will happen to you,” said Cody Smith, a sophomore catcher at Santaluces.