Blistering can be a sign that a sunburn is especially intense, according to Vernon Sondak, MD, the chair of the department of cutaneous oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. This type of sunburn gets into deeper layers of the skin than other sunburns, causing more damage, raising the risk of infection, and increasing the odds of skin cancer, he says.
The blistering is an immune response, in which fluid builds up under damaged skin to create a protective barrier — the blister. “First, the skin gets red. Then, cells begin to die,” Dr. Sondak says. “That’s when the blistering and peeling occurs.”
While there’s no good data to support the claim that a single bad sunburn is enough to raise a person’s lifetime risk of skin cancer, it’s possible, Sondak says.
A bad sunburn is like a game of roulette, he notes. In some cases, one turn of the “wheel” could lead to cancer; in other cases, you might spin and spin without landing on a bad result.
Blistering sunburns in young people may pose special risks. One oft-cited landmark study found that young white women who’d had five or more blistering sunburns between ages 15 and 20 saw their risk of developing melanoma (the most serious type of skin cancer) increase by 80 percent.
Their risk of other types of skin cancer also went up but was not as closely associated with sun exposure in early life.
In addition to melanoma, another form of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma, which begins in the squamous cells that make up the outer layer of skin, is associated with regular UV exposure, Sondak says.
Basal cell carcinoma, which begins in the cells that make new skin cells as old ones die, can be caused by a mixture of blistering sunburns and chronic exposure, he says.
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