This is particularly worrisome where skin cancer is concerned, says Jared Jagdeo, MD, an associate professor of dermatology and director of the Center for Photomedicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. “Some of my lighter-skinned Black patients they feel prettier with a tan.” Second, the disease is often diagnosed at more advanced stages in patients of color, which means it could be much more deadly by the time it is found. “My Latina patients have no problem getting a tan,” says Alicia Barba, MD, a dermatologist in Miami. But two insidious factors can worsen outcomes: First, relaxed attitudes toward tanning among patients of color can amplify risk. According to a 2009 report in the Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association, while rates of skin cancer in the United States are about 35 to 45 percent among Caucasians, they are 5 percent or less for Hispanic and Asian patients, and between 1 and 2 percent for Black patients. The likelihood of women of color getting skin cancer is comparatively low. Smith’s surprise isn’t entirely unfounded. I asked my dermatologist how rare this is, especially in African Americans.” She was diagnosed with skin cancer-malignant melanoma-last December. “They had to remove a piece of tissue that was 8.5 centimeters wide and 4 centimeters deep out of my thigh,” Smith says.

Smith, now the mother of a young child, is lying on a plastic surgeon’s table with a gaping hole in her leg.

Zocdoc dermatologist