December 12, 2019

Melanoma is a familiar word to most Australians. But it’s only when melanoma directly impacts our lives that we begin to understand the potential seriousness of this type of skin cancer.

Melanoma is a form of cancer that develops in the body’s pigment cells, known as melanocytes. Melanoma occurs when abnormal melanocytes grow in an uncontrolled way and evade the immune system.

Melanomas are categorised by their clinical and pathological appearance. About 90% of melanomas appear as a darker colour but about 10% appear as pink or red (amelanotic melanoma). The most common 4 types of primary cutaneous melanoma include superficial spreading melanoma, nodular melanoma, lentigo maligna & lentigo maligna melanoma, and acral lentiginous melanoma. Other, less common types of melanoma include desmoplastic, mucosal and intraocular.

While anyone can develop melanoma, there are certain factors that can increase your risk. These include: being male, sun exposure, using sunbeds, having many moles, a previous melanoma, fair skin, previous non-melanoma skin cancer, skin damage from the sun, a family history of melanoma, or older age.

• The  ‘ugly duckling’ or a spot that acts and appears different to all other spots
• Usually begins in the skin – it can start in the eye or the moist tissue that lines certain parts of the inside of your body (less common)
• Can occur anywhere you have melanocytes, even if they are not exposed to sunlight.
• Most aggressive form of Skin Cancer
• Easily treated when found early

A “hairy” tale about moles and melanomas.

This mole was discovered on the scalp of a 50 year old woman by her hairdresser. This is a reminder that moles and melanomas can occur anywhere on the body, including;

• Scalp
  
• Soles of the feet and between toes
  
• Genital areas
• i.e not necessarily in areas of maximum sun exposure

More than 15,000 new cases of melanoma are diagnosed every year in Australia. Of these, 90% of people will be treated successfully by having the primary melanoma surgically removed.

Most melanoma diagnoses start with a physical examination of a suspicious looking spot or lesion on the skin. Your doctor will have assessed this spot or lesion and decided to perform a biopsy to investigate it further. A biopsy is the removal of a tissue sample from the suspicious area so that it can be sent to a pathologist for examination. A pathologist would have examined your tissue sample under a microscope to determine if it contained melanoma cells. The results of this biopsy would have been provided to your doctor in a pathology report.

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