The severest form of skin cancer is melanoma. What is a melanoma skin cancer?
Signs of melanoma:
Usually melanoma looks like a pigmental spot, sometimes it has a shape of a node. The color of a tumor usually is brown, dark brown or black. It may also be red in some cases.
The criteria of melanoma's diagnostics:
A (asymmetric) – asymmetric moles
B (borders) – moles having irregular borders
C (colors) – moles of various colors
D (diameter) – moles greater than 6 mm in size
E (evolution) – moles that tend to enlarge quickly
It does not necessarily mean that spotting one of these signs announces about melanoma cancer but these features are the possible melanoma symptoms.
Statistics:
The morbidity in melanoma increases all over the world. It is related to a worsening genetics, being in the sun for too long, visiting solarium and the fashion of tan. In the past few years the morbidity in melanoma has increased by 100% approximately.
But not every case of skin cancer is a melanoma. It may also be a nonmelanoma skin cancer.
As melanoma, so a nonmelanoma skin cancer is also mostly probable for light-skinned people. Basal cell carcinoma (basalioma) develops out of deepest skin epidermis basal cells, also may spread to other body parts. First sign of such a skin cancer may just be a small elevation of skin color (although it may also appear as a dark knot/elevation) that appears on face. Eventually it begins to spread to other body parts and might remind an eczema – reddish, flatty plate that usually appears in the areas of waist, breast, limbs. Patients usually ignore early signs of melanoma as it does not itch, hurt or is noticeable at all.
Procrastination may lead to severe forms of skin cancer. The most dangerous aspect of the disease is it's ability in later melanoma stages to spread to the other parts of the body. Metastatic melanoma, also known as melanoma of the 4th stage, occurs when melanoma cells have spread through the lymph nodes to distant body's organs. The liver, lungs, bones and brain are most often affected by metastatic melanoma.
Another type of melanoma is an acral lentiginous melanoma. Melanoma is a potentially serious skin cancer that arises from pigment cells (melanocytes). Acral lentiginous melanoma is the most common subtype in people with darker skins. Symptoms of this melanoma type include:
- longitudinal tan, black, or brown streak on a finger or toe nail;
- pigmentation of proximal nail fold;
- areas of dark pigmentation on palms of hands or soles of feet.
If the disease is diagnosed in early melanoma stages, it can be successfully cured.
