Neutrogena and the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) have once again teamed up on a campaign to educate and empower people to take charge of their own skin health. Running through July, Choose Skin Health from Neutrogena encourages Americans to regularly perform skin self-examinations, seek a free skin cancer screening from a dermatologist and protect themselves from the sun.

To create awareness of the importance of skin health, Choose Skin Health from Neutrogena is running advertisements in leading consumer magazines featuring actress Jennifer Garner. The ads encourage the public to protect themselves from the sun, perform skin self-examinations regularly and obtain a free skin cancer screening being offered nationwide this year by more than 2,000 dermatologists, who are members of the American Academy of Dermatology. The public education campaign offers additional information about skin cancer prevention and detection, and tools to help the public locate a free skin cancer screening and a dermatologist by visiting www.aad.org or www.neutrogenaskinhealth.com. Choose Skin Health from Neutrogena has also produced a video, featuring actress Malin Akermann, that encourages performing a skin exam on a loved one. The video is available on www.neutrogenaskinhealth.com.

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The study - funded by Cancer Research UK, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and the Wellcome Trust - reveals a new class of potential drug candidates that are designed to treat malignant melanoma - the deadliest form of skin cancer.

This team previously showed that a protein called BRAF, which is mutated in 50 to 70 per cent of human melanomas, is responsible for driving the growth of melanoma cells.

The chemicals they have developed, called pyridoimidazolones, block the activity of the mutated BRAF protein and so inhibit the growth of melanoma cells.

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In recognition of Skin Cancer Awareness Month and the increasing incidence of skin cancer in the United States, the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS) has created a free Skin Self Exam (SSE) kit available on the Society’s Facebook site. The kit and site were created to educate younger audiences about the potential dangers of skin cancer and the importance of early detection methods.

“Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer and is the second most common cancer affecting women aged 20 to 29,” says Robert Weiss, M.D., president of the ASDS. “The 5-year survival rate for people whose melanoma is detected and treated before it spreads is 99 percent; therefore, it’s critical that consumers perform regular self-skin exams. Through Facebook, the ASDS is pleased to provide young women and men who are at highest risk for skin cancer with resources that could potentially save their lives.

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An exciting new batch of studies is showing that antioxidants can help protect against thymine dimers and consequently reduce your risk of getting skin cancer. Research has found that the powerful antioxidants Vitamins C and E can both reduce the severity of sunburns and significantly reduce the incidence of thymine dimers. Green tea has also been shown to have protective qualities.To protect yourself from skin cancer, it might help if you understand a bit about thymine dimers and their role in causing cancerous lesions.

Thymine is a base pair that forms some of the blocks in the “ladder,” or double-helix structure, of everyone’s DNA. When thymines are exposed to sunlight, they bind together and become thymine dimers (they’re called “dimers” because there are two thymines: “di” is the latin prefix  for “double”).

When this happens, your body responds with a cellular process that splits up the dimers so they become two separate thymines again. The problem is, each time the thymines are split there’s a chance that a mutation will occur–and some mutations can be cancerous.

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