Melanoma

What you need to know about this serious type of skin cancer

There are three main types of skin cancer – basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma. 

The types and names of the different types of skin cancer are derived by the type of cell from which they originated.  Melanoma is a cancerous growth of the melanocytes, the pigment cells in the skin.  Everyone has melanocytes scattered throughout the base of their skin, the melanocytes produce the pigment that gives our skin its color.  When those melanocytes go awry and grow cancerous, they become melanoma.

Melanoma is the most serious and dangerous kind of skin cancer.  It can spread to other parts of the body and affect life span if not caught early.  Luckily, most melanomas I find in my practice are in an early stage because they are found on a routine skin exam.  If caught in the earliest stage, there is less than 1% that it will affect the life span.  However, if caught in the later stages, there is only a 30% chance the patient will live 5 years.

Melanoma is the type of skin cancer that we stage.  The stage is related to how deep the melanoma grows in the skin.  The deeper it grows, the higher the stage, and the more deadly it is and the more therapy is needed.

For early stages of melanoma, the only therapy is to excise or cut out the cancer plus some normal surrounding skin.  Sometimes lymph nodes are sampled or removed as well.  For more advanced melanomas, there are new types of immunotherapy that are more promising than traditional therapy.

My goal is to never need to refer patients to oncology for more advanced therapy. Let’s keep doing those skin checks – patients do a monthly check at home and I’ll do one for my patients at least yearly.  That is a winning combination that should catch melanomas early! 

When doing a skin check look for something new that is growing or changing.  Only 20% of melanomas occur in a preexisting mole.  Usually, it is a new growth.  Digital photography is a great resource to take pictures of moles you are concerned about or watching.  The digital photograph will document a date.  Holding a ruler in the picture gives a size reference as well.  I recommend taking a picture of the whole area – the entire back, entire chest, each arm, and leg, etc.  Then zooming in with a ruler and taking a close-up picture of the spots that are concerning. Having a baseline picture also allows identifying new “intruders” that may be suspicious for melanoma. 

To learn more about melanoma, treatments and what to watch for, check out the Skin Cancer Foundation’s extensive resources. 

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