people of color may think skin cancer doesn't affect them but that's not true according to a new study black men are 26 percent more likely to die of melanoma than white men experts say part of the issue is that doctors aren't often trained to identify skin cancers on white skin and may not know how the disease shows up on other races Melissa Rose Cooper reports while persons of color are at lower risk for directing sunburns and Tanning clearly there there is an arrest for melanoma associated with pigmented skin yet Dr Franz Omar Smith says there's a common misconception that black people are immune to getting skin cancer he says while chances for the disease are lower than for their white counterparts it doesn't discriminate the risk is about 26 per 100 000 persons overall for uh for persons of color the risk is about one in a hundred thousand so significantly lower than uh than the general population however we do know that when persons of color get melanoma in particular they get it in unusual locations so they tend to get a type of melanoma we call acryl indigenous melanoma which is usually on the palms soles under the nail beds a rare form of the disease that's more difficult difficult to diagnose because of where it's usually located and according to a new study from the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology even though white men are more likely to get skin cancer black men are 26 percent more likely to die from it a lot of men in general are affected by melanomas because they don't look at their bodies they don't look at their backs they don't look at the backs of their legs if their partner notices something changing you know they help to get them to me or another board certified dermatologist for us to look but a lot of men aren't really looking at their skin hard at all and quite frankly a lot of women aren't either then when it comes to black men there's this whole fallacy that black people don't get skin cancer and then if you want to go a step further that black people don't need sunscreen well number one anybody with skin needs sunscreen and anybody with skin can get skin cancer so those are complete fallacies Dr Janine Downey recommends everyone regardless of skin color wears sunscreen daily throughout the year rain or shine she even advises people to put it on while indoors since sun exposure isn't the only concern that can affect skin we react to indoor lighting and Outdoor Lighting that is the blue light from the phone the computer the Apple watch the iPad you know your your Fitbit my like all of that we react to as well as indoor lighting so there's UVA light which people know about there's UVB light which people know about there is infrared which is heat getting in a hot car opening a hot oven that's infrared and it's a whole nother part of the sun spectrum that nobody talks about the issue is that African Americans are not running down into this office to get their skin checks and I think that's where kind of um we need a little bit more education from the Dermatology side that regardless of the the melanin component of your skin you still need to be getting your skin checked and so the delay in actually having your skin checked is what's leading to the delay in diagnosis and so a lot of times these skin cancers are found at a later stage than what our white counterparts are where we're finding their skin cancers doctors recommend seeing the dermatologist at least once a year for a full body scan and if you notice any changes on your skin schedule a visit right away for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper