An Instagram video claims that skin cancer has only been around for decades.
"Skin cancer is a relatively new phenomenon of the last 60 years," the text of the message continues. The release was billed as part of Meta's efforts to fight fake news and disinformation. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram.)
The video, which shows alien scenes, adds audio detail showing a Baylor University study that exposed unidentified female animals to ultraviolet rays from the sun.
25% of the animals fed a "horrible standard American diet" developed skin cancer, and none of the animals ate a "very nutritious" diet. She then stated in the video that skin cancer only emerged within the last 60 years.
We featured the clip in a 2014 YouTube documentary with Dr. Trovato on Lorraine Day. Day is a surgeon who sells products that claim to cure cancer naturally. In recent years, he has spread misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines, claiming that people diagnosed with the virus are unknowingly getting the vaccine.
Baylor University told Reuters in 2022 that date refers to a test for which there were no registrations.
Scientists have been detecting skin cancer for over 200 years, since at least 1804.
René Laneck, who invented the stethoscope that year, was the first to identify melanoma as a distinct form of skin cancer, Melanoma Research magazine reported.
Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in America.
Scientific evidence shows that excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation – emitted by the sun – is the main risk factor for skin cancer.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society, most skin cancers are caused by overexposure to ultraviolet radiation, and sunlight is the primary source of ultraviolet radiation.
Other sources of ultraviolet radiation include sun lamps, black light lamps and black light lamps.
We say, "Skin cancer is a relatively recent phenomenon over the past 60 years," which is wrong.
PolitiFact Contributor Karin Baird contributed to this report.