In the past three decades, the rates of skin cancer have been rising. This danger was recently brought home to reality-TV star Khloe Kardashian, saying on social media that she had to have a mole on her back removed because of a skin cancer scare.

Her experience is not unusual,  Dr. Vadim Gushchin tells Newsmax Health. The rate of skin cancer, including deadly melanoma, is on the increase.

"These rates are rising, and the cause is sun exposure," he says.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer. More than four million cases of basal cell carcinoma, and one million cases of squamous cell carcinoma are diagnosed each year. While disfiguring, these cancers seldom kill.

But a third form of skin cancer, melanoma, is potentially deadly because it can spread to other organs. An estimated 76,300 people are diagnosed with melanoma each year and about 10,130 die annually from the disease.

Causes of melanoma include excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun and other sources, like tanning beds or sun lamps. Gender and heredity also play a role.

Melanoma is more common in men, possibly because the female hormones promote the production of melanin, which gives skin a darker hue.

A new study finds that, even when skin color appears similar, men’s tended to be slightly lighter and the response of their skin to UV ray exposure was worse.

Skin cancer rates have been rising because of increased sun exposure, says Gushchin, director of gastrointestinal oncology at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. Most people turn to sunblock but such protection isn't foolproof, he notes. 

“It’s not easy, in a practical sense, to use sunblock, or suntan lotions, correctly,” he adds. “People don’t generally apply as much of it, or reapply it as often as they are supposed to.

“These lotions also give a sense of false security. While it cuts down on the sun’s radiation, people can burn if they stay too long in the direct sunlight.”

Also, while sunblock plays a role in preventing skin cancer, this isn’t necessarily true for melanoma, he notes.

“Multiple studies have not shown that sunblock is not that effective in preventing melanoma,” he says. “It prevents sunburn, but when it comes to melanoma, the most effective prevention is avoid direct sunlight altogether, especially when it’s the strongest.”

This is most important for children, because cancer risk rises with one or more sunburns before the age of 15, and the earlier it occurs, the higher the risk, Gushchin says.

“The most important thing to do is to keep children out of the direct sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Have them wear long pants and sleeves and, if they are very young, put them in the shade,” he says.

"People also should steer clear of tanning parlors, which have been found to raise melanoma risk. It just doesn’t make sense to me to expose yourself to a known carcinogen. It’s like smoking cigarettes, it’s a dangerous thing to do.”

Skin cancer and melanoma can be detected through screening, which involves a visual inspection of your skin by a medical professional. But research is also mixed on how often the average person should have this done, he notes.

“Whether or not skin cancer screening to find melanoma in the average person has been discussed, but there is insufficient information to recommend it. So there’s no scientific answer but there are common sense guidelines," says Gushchin.

According to Gushchin, you should have an annual skin cancer check if you have the following risk factors: 

• Being a skin cancer or melanoma survivor.
• Fair coloring, like blonde hair and or blue or green eyes.
• A history of sunburn, or if your skin burns easily.
• Having a lot of moles.
• If you have family members who developed melanoma.

When it comes to moles, here are Gushchin's tips on what to look out for:

• A new mole that suddenly appears.
• An existing mole or pigmented lesion that changes size.
• Change in color.
• Change in shape, especially if it becomes ragged.
• A mole that begins bleeding.
• A change in the shape of a mole, or if it becomes raised.

“Sometimes patients cannot verbalize what’s unusual about their mole. They’ll say, ‘It just looks funny,’ and that’s good enough for me to warrant checking it,” he says.