Skin Cancer Medical Animation Summary

The video “Skin Cancer Medical Animation” is about the integumentary system (skin) and how skin cancer is developed. Compared to majority of the organ systems, the integumentary system is one of the largest organ systems that play an important role in protection and maintenance of body temperature and fluids (Cancer Treatment Center of America, 2007). According to the video, the skin is composed of three layers with each layer having different types of cells. The first layer is the Epidermis which is composed of basal, squamous, and melanocytes cells, its function is to shield and defend the internal layers of tissues and organs from having too much contact to UV sunlight. The second layer is the dermis and it is composed of “blood vessels, connective tissue, hair follicles, and sweat glands” and the
last layer is the subcutaneous layer which is also known as the hypodermis and it comprises fat cell (Cancer Treatment Center of America, 2007). Skin cancer is developed when skin cell is damaged or don’t divide and the cell builds up over time.
The damage of the skin cell is caused by exposed to a lot of sunlight or from past sunburns. In the video, the narrator talks about the three most known skin cancers and how they are differentiated by the cell type, which are Basal Cell Carcinoma, Squamous Cell Carcinomas, and Malignant Melanomas (Cancer Treatment Center of America, 2007). The Basal Cell Carcinoma is frequently originated in people whose skin is mostly visible to the sun or on the surface of the skin, and it affects that area only and does not spread into the other parts of the skin. The Squamous cell carcinomas on the other hand originates in the deeper layer of the epidermis and compared to the Basal Cell Carcinoma it doesn’t only effect one part of the skin, it spreads all over the body and is a lot more difficult to cure. The Malignant Melanomas is one of the most harmful types of skin cancer that spreads throughout the entire body and affects the organs. This type of skin cancer mostly develops in people who have lighter skin color and lack melanin pigments (Cancer Treatment Center of America,
2007).
Even though this video was extremely short, I thought that it was an okay video, it gave a brief explanation about skin cancer and how it is developed within the different skin cells. I thought that the video had a really good animation, but I felt like the video could have been better if it was longer and talked about the integumentary system and the different layers of the thick and thin skin cells that we discussed in our lectures, especially since this video is in the Cancer Treatment Center of America where majority of the people go to get information about these risky diseases. In lecture, we talked about the five strata of keratinocytes and how they are layered on top of each other, with Stratum basal being the deepest layer and Stratum corneum are being the most superficial layer and each layer containing keratinization that is filled with keratin that is supposed to be the protective cells and barriers for the skin (Dr. Rayan, 2017). While I was watching the video, I was a little confused on how in skin cancer, the basal cells and squamous Cells are the ones affected in the epidermis if there are many layer on top of those cells to protect those cells. From my past knowledge and our class lecture, I know that there are many more factors that contribute to skin cancer other than UV sunlight, such as tanning beds, toxic things, radiations like from the use of too much x-ray machines, family history, and etc. I think this video would have been more informative if they talked about the many causes and the different treatments to skin cancer. One other question that this video has left me with is that a lot of people in the United Stated don’t really know much about skin cancer as much as they do about other cancers like breast cancer and why there isn’t much information about it to educate people about this disease in the media. What I also don’t understand is why the society has created so many tanning beds and other risk factors and less preventions and information on how to detect signs early.
In the future, I am planning to become a nurse and I could use the information that is presented in the video “Skin Cancer Medical Animation” to inform patients about skin cancer and what it does to the skin cells. I would also use the information to help patients and preventing them from skin cancer and detecting their early signs and symptoms so that the patients are able to get early treatments before they develop the disease or the disease worsens. Outside of my future career, I could also use the information I learned from the video to be an advocate and educator to those that don’t know anything about skin cancer. Since this video was missing a few important information that I think a lot of people need to know about skin cancer, I could use the information that is presented in this video to get me started to do a further research on this topic and hopefully be able create a new digital source that is more enlightening for students like me.