NAHANT — For those who love getting a good tan in the summer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has brought a mobile skin cancer screening van to Nahant Beach to check all those worrisome spots. 

More than 60 people joined the screening on Wednesday, with more walking through the doors of the beach’s bathhouse for a quick check. 

Sabrina Gonzalez, Senior Community Outreach Specialist in Mobile Health and External Affairs at Dana-Farber, has dedicated the past decade to bringing accessible screenings to people enjoying time in the sun. 

The greatest message she hopes to share with the public is that skin cancer is common, and it’s always best to check before it becomes a bigger concern. 

“The work that we do is keeping people outside our doors, giving the message that if you have skin, you can develop skin cancer,” Gonzalez said. 

The best protection against skin cancer, in Gonzalez’s opinion, has always been to stay vigilant and to get to know your body in a way that if there is a slight change, it’s noticeable. 

“If we catch cancer in the early stages, it can be easily treated,” Gonzalez added.

At the screening van, which has collaborated with Massachusetts Brigham Cancer Center, if something is found during a screening, it is expedited, getting the Brigham center to contact the individual and setting up an appointment within two weeks, Gonzalez said. 

One woman, Jen Calef, had been having accessibility issues with her insurance company, keeping her from solidifying a screening appointment to look at a concerning spot on her elbow. 

After seeing the free, no insurance required, skin cancer screening event by Dana-Farber and Mass Brigham online, she snatched the opportunity to get a definitive answer about her concerns. 

“They found skin cancer,” Calef said. “I am so thankful that this is here; I can’t tell you how much I’m thankful. They’re going to send this paperwork to my doctor, and then they’ll set up an appointment and get hold of me.” 

After getting a screening done, participants were handed goodies, like a brimmed Red Sox hat, sunscreen spray and ChapStick, pamphlets on how to spot melanoma early and how to conduct self-body checks, and a key chain that detects how intense UV rays are on your body, Gonzalez shared. 

Bernard Manning, the Lead Health Educator at Dana-Farber, shared that in states like Massachusetts, which have four seasons and cloudy weather somewhat year-round, it’s harder to be conscious of the sun’s effects on the skin. 

“The sun is always there,” Manning said. “It’s always going to be affecting your skin. You want to be mindful that the sun will reflect off of dry surfaces, clouds, the water, the snow… just make sure to put on sunscreen every time you go out.” 

For those who love some color at the end of the summer, Gonzalez has healthier alternatives to give a glowy and non-leathery look: tinted sunscreen, spray tans, and tanning moisturizer. 

She suggests staying away from tanning beds and tanning directly under the sun with anything below SPF 30, with the dangers of turning an innocent freckle into skin cancer. 

“The longer and the more sunburns we get in our life, the incidence of skin cancer goes up,” Gonzalez added. 

Brigham Center Dermatologist Dr. Allen Ho was the sole dermatologist working the screening event. He shared that the top concerns when it came to performing the screenings were looking at the A-B-C-D-E’s of melanoma. 

“A stands for asymmetry; B stands for border, so we’re looking for even borders,” Ho said. “C stands for color, so in general the color should be fairly even; D’s diameter, so anything bigger than the end of a pencil eraser should raise some concern, and E is evolution.” 

Ho shared that the van screening is much different compared to when they’re done in the clinic. Considering it’s public, it’s a surface-level screening where only the exposed skin is checked, versus when in the clinic, it’s much more in-depth, Ho said. 

Everyone part of the screening came for different reasons, however, Ho said. Some came straight off the beach, and others came with specific spots and lesions they wished to have evaluated. 

“I think it’s important to get evaluated by a dermatologist, and I tend to tell people that whatever you’re concerned about in the skin, I’d much rather have polis, and have you come in for us to say, ‘Oh, that’s nothing,’ rather than have you sit on it and have it turn into something,” Ho added. 

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts Brigham Cancer Center van screenings will continue this summer with locations all over the coast from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. On July 20, the van will return to Nahant, followed by two Wollaston Beach visits on July 30 and August 3. A visit to Carson Beach on August 7 and Revere Beach on August 13. 

For more information about the screenings, check the institute’s Facebook and Instagram for updates.