7 Things You Never Knew About Detecting Skin Cancer

"On average, a person's risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns," says Julie Karen, MD, a New York dermatologist and spokesperson for The Skin Cancer Foundation. While the sun may feel glorious against your skin, getting burned is literally like playing with fire.

"Sometimes the skin can't repair the DNA damage caused by UV radiation, which triggers mutations, or genetic defects, that lead the skin cells to multiply rapidly and form malignant tumors — skin cancers," Dr. Karen further explains.