A WOMAN’s manicure left her with a deadly cancer, doctors have said.
Grace Garcia, from California, US, developed the killer cancer under her nail after her nail technician was particularly aggressive with her cuticle.
“I couldn’t believe it, something as simple as a manicure could’ve killed me,” Grace told Fox News.
After the nail appointment, the mum-of-three noticed her finger “hurt a lot” and it looked like a blister was forming on her cuticle.
Her right finger wouldn’t fully heal and within three months she knew something was wrong.
Her doctor sent her a dermatologist who biopsied her finger.
The mum-of-three was diagnosed with a form of non-melanoma skin cancer – known as squamous cell carcinoma.
Non-melanoma skin cancers are diagnosed a combined 147,000 times a year in the UK, according to Cancer Research UK.
The deadly cancer also takes the lives of around 720 Brits each year.
Doctor Teo Soleymani, who treated Grace said the cancer was caused by the Human papillomavirus (HPV).
He said her manicure may have triggered the cancer to develop.
It’s not clear exactly how many of these nail cancers are caused by HPV but Dr Soleymani says he’s seen an increasing number of cases nationwide.
“Interestingly almost every single skin cancer I’ve dealt with that involved fingers or nails …have been associated with high risk HPV. That is alarming – and it’s in younger patients.”
Dr Soleymani says he’s only seen a handful caused by manicures.
“Rarely do we see high risk squamous cell carcinoma arising from this but I have had half dozen with this phenomenon,” he said.
Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Non-melanoma skin cancer refers to a group of cancers that slowly develop in the upper layers of the skin.
The first sign of non-melanoma skin cancer is usually the appearance of a lump or discoloured patch on the skin, the NHS says.
It persists after a few weeks and slowly progresses over months or sometimes years.
In most cases, cancerous lumps are red and firm and sometimes turn into ulcers. Cancerous patches are usually flat and scaly.
The two most common types of non-melanoma skin cancer are basal cell cancer and squamous cell carcinoma.
Source: NHS
