Hillhouse to shine light on skin cancer with research Posted Saturday, March 5, 2005 by arjuna
East Tennessean - LifeStyle

Issue: 3/3/05 By David Bryant

Skin cancer is the fastest growing cancer in the world. It also happens to be the most expensive cancer to treat, with different types surfacing rapidly. Melanoma alone kills about 8,000 people a year, the American Cancer Society says. That's the "big picture." ETSU Health Psychology Professor Dr. Joel Hillhouse has chosen to focus his cancer research on a sample of the public he interacts with every day - students. Hillhouse has received a $1.3 million ACS grant to help aid in his research to prove tanning beds cause skin cancer. His research will specifically study the effects of tanning on the skin's appearance, he said. "Most college students know the health risks involved and choose to ignore them," Hillhouse said. "Hopefully with showing how tanning hurts their physical appearance we can reach them better." In a pilot study performed in 2000, Hillhouse used about 40 students to probe the effects of tanning on the skin. By showing the students that tanning caused their skin to thicken, age and wrinkle, Hillhouse was able to reduce their tanning visits by as much as 50 percent, he said. The ACS could not ignore Hillhouse's results, he said. College students are Hillhouse's key focus because studies have shown that the highest frequency of tanning happens between ages 18-25. Scott Hammerbacher, a 21-year-old student worker in ETSU's Psychology Department, admits that after hearing Hillhouse's argument he has significantly reduced his visits to the tanning bed. "I think that this is a unique way of educating college students on some of our unhealthy habits," Hammerbacher said. "I feel that tanning bed shops really do not express the possible side effects associated with tanning and that's misleading." One of the biggest misconceptions people have about tanning is that it is healthy for you, Hillhouse said. That simply is not possible, he said. So, is Hillhouse trying to put a lid on the $4 billion industry? "My job is not to shut down tanning beds immediately," he said. "It is to educate young people on how tanning beds can hurt them." A slow transition of turning tanning beds into skin care facilities over time, however, is one of his goals, Hillhouse said. First, though, money from the grant is being used to set up the laboratory for the study. ETSU provided an unfurnished lab and Hillhouse is acquiring all the necessary equipment. Then Hillhouse will hire a coordinator and research assistants. Finally toward the end of this summer, he will begin to randomly select the students to participate in the study, he said. In addition to his 10 years in skin cancer prevention work, Hillhouse has the passion for health psychology - and a certain amount of timing and what he calls luck. "Some of it is serendipity," he said, "but I genuinely have an interest."