How To Spot A Malignant Mole
By Aleksandr Kavokin, MD/PhD
This morning you took a bath. The warm water feels
so nice during the cold winter day. There was some funny skin itching
on you back. You looked in the mirror, turned this way , that way.
There is small mole on your back You remember this spot had been there
for years, since childhood. Did this spot get that strange itching?
Recently you have heard the news that there are more
than 50000 of new melanoma cases every year. This number grows 3%
a year.
What is going on? Is this small spot on you back went
out of control?
Several types of skin tumors exist. Many are slow
growers. Many give rare metastasis. Simple removal cure majority of
skin tumors.
Melanoma brings troubles big time.
Melanos = black, oma = tumor.
You can detect melanoma by self-exam. Skin cancers
show themselves much easier than any other types of cancer.
In the same time you can cure melanoma by simple surgical
resection. However, catch this tumor in early stage. Late stage metastasize.
Surgeon can not cut off every metastasis in your body.
There are numerous sites dedicated to melanoma self-exam.
Just type in the word "melanoma" into any search engine.
Follow instructions.
Fair skin people have more chances of getting melanoma.
However, dark skin people develop melanoma too.
Everybody has moles. Women even use moles to charm.
How to find if your mole became dangerous?
Dangerous signs include ABCD:
- Asymmetry
- Border
- Color
- Diameter
A- asymmetry. Suspicious mole does
not look like a round or oval blot. Often, early melanoma looks rather
like a blot with an odd shape.
B- borders. Borders become irregular,
uneven, fuzzy. The edges of the blots become notched.
C- color. Color of normal mole should
be more or less homogenous. Change in color is very suspicious . There
are shades of brown, black, tan, red. Mottled color is suspicious.
D- diameter. Change in diameter is
suspicious too. Mole that is bigger than 6 mm is suspicious. Everybody
compares 6 mm to a pencil eraser (though few people actually use it
extensively). Just to get idea about the borderline size.
Besides ABCD there could be other signs of dangerous
mole:
E - enlargement and elevation over time
Also worrisome signs include easy bleeding and erythema
(redness) around the mole.
Itching and pain in the side of mole make you suspicious
as well.
History of melanoma in the family should also raise
suspicions.
Some skin problems look like melanoma, but are actually
harmless. Anyway, do not gamble with them. Even experienced physician
can not always tell if the lesion is malignant or not. It is better
to be safe then sorry and check the troubling changes soon.
Some rare types of melanoma exist. Because even obvious
melanomas are not always diagnosed on time, the unusual types becomes
much more deadlier. Often doctor sees them too late.
Melanoma under the nails.
Melanoma of mucous membranes. (Mouth, nose or guts)
Amelanotic melanoma - this one is not even colored.
The treatment will be excision with margins and biopsy,
but most important of course is to catch melanoma Know that the treatment
depends on the thickness of the tumor and the presence of distant
metastasis.
Surgeon or dermatologist cuts off the melanoma. Then,
Pathologist (doctor specializing in lab diagnostics) looks the sample
under microscope.
He classifies the tumor. The grade of the tumor gives
the clue to the chances of your survival.
There are several classifications
Breslow classification measure the penetration of
the lesion into skin by millimeters. Know that > 0.75 mm is already
dangerous, but > 4 mm is wacking.
What is 4 mm. It is nothing. Right? Take a ruler and
check how 1 mm looks and how 4 mm looks.
So this is why it is important to catch melanoma early.
There is also Clarks classification that measures
penetration of the melanoma into the skin and other layers.
TNM classification standardizes the grading.
You can not know the grade unless you excise and measure
the melanoma penetration under microscope. It is not a do-it-yourself
project. Surgeon and pathologist will do it.
The time of evolvement 1-2 years.
The frequency of melanoma is increasing. It might
be because of more people get sun damage. Also other reasons may play
role.
Treatment of melanoma includes surgical
removal, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy.
About the author: Aleksandr Kavokin MD/PhD,
Phila http://www.kavokin.com
Aleksandr Kavokin, MD1994 Russia,PhD1997 Russia - Immunology and Allergy,
postdoc at Cancer Center at Med U of South Carolina, postdoc at Yale
- Cardiology, Molecular Medicine. http://www.geocities.com/aging_rejuvenation
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