(HealthDay News) -- Liver transplant patients have a higher incidence of cancer than the general population, say researchers in Finland.

In a new study published in the October issue of Liver Transplantation, researchers investigated the cancer risk pattern in 540 Finnish liver transplant recipients from Helsinki University Central Hospital. The patients were given transplants between 1982 and 2005.

Transplantation and the immunosuppression therapies that help prevent organ rejection have long been associated with an increased risk of cancer.

I took my 7-year-old daughter in to see my dermatologist just for a routine skin check. She'd never been to a dermatologist before, but because she has a few moles, I thought it would be a good idea to have a baseline established in case any of her moles start to change as she gets older.

Well, little did I know the shock I was in for....

Come on, baby boomers. You know who I'm talking to! We "laid out" with tiny bikinis and baby oil to magnify the effects of the sun. We lived in a world where "tan" was still a synonym for "healthy-looking," and we did a lot of damage to our skin along the way.

Before the dangers of suntanning were well-known, many of us spent our summers in the sun, sunscreen-free. We'd spend days at the pool or the lake, and by the end of the summers our moms couldn't tell if we were really that tan, or just plain covered with dirt.

MONDAY, Sept. 22 (HealthDay News) -- A possible link between melanoma and a gene involved in vitamin D metabolism has been identified by Italian researchers.

They examined existing scientific literature on the association between melanoma (the most serious type of skin cancer) and common variants of the vitamin D receptor gene Bsml, and concluded that people with certain variants of the gene may be at increased risk for melanoma.

The University of Padova team said more research is needed to confirm this link between the gene variants and melanoma.

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have identified an "odor profile" for skin cancer, with an eye toward developing a fast, simple and noninvasive test to diagnose the most common form of skin cancer in the United States.

"We found that the odor profile coming from the skin of skin cancer patients was markedly different than that coming from healthy skin," noted study author Michelle Gallagher, who conducted her research while a postdoctoral fellow at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.

TUESDAY, July 8 (HealthDay News) -- The thicker the skin cancer tumor, the more likely it will spread or reoccur, according to a newly published study.

German research in the August edition of The Lancet Oncology, found that cutaneous squamous-cell carcinomas of increased tumor thickness were almost five times more likely to spread, compared to thinner lesions.

Allow me to be your poster child for what not to do when outside.

I'm the first to advise all to wear sun screen, not to sunbathe in direct sunlight with no protectant and to generally avoid prolonged exposure to the sn.

So off I trot, out to our deck having slathered my kids in a very high factor sunscreen about 15 minutes before hand. The huge umbrella is up and I sit beneath it, watching my children splash in their little pool. A couple of hours and a nice lunch later, I put everyone down for naps and continue my day.

I have melasma, or what is sometimes called 'mask of pregnancy' or 'pregnancy mask'.

I got it in my third pregnancy and my OB/GYN told me it would probably go once I gave birth. 'Probably' being a key word! Nearly two years later it is still here.

Melasma is a tan or brown patch that women often get in pregnancy (although men can get it too) and can be made worse by sun exposure. It's usually on the face, particularly the cheekbone and forehead area. That's exactly where I have mine. Some women do not lose the melasma after birth and I'm one of them.