Melanoma
Dustin Bakker pd.3
Overview
Melanoma is a skin cancer. Allowed to grow, this disease can spread to other parts of the body. When melanoma spreads, it can be deadly depending on the place it spreads to. look at the moles on your skin because this is a good way to find melanoma
Causes
Ultraviolet radiation is what causes it in most cases. We get UV radiation from the sun, tanning beds, and sun lamps and other light sources. Heredity can also plays a role. Research shows that if a blood relative had melanoma, a person has a much greater risk of getting melanoma than others.
Symptoms
In early symptoms, sometimes melanoma will:
- Be Itchy
- Bleed where it is visible.
- Feeling pain in that area
- Spreading of the cancer to other area's of the body
Prevention
- Check yourself
- If you tan, stop doing so. Tanning outdoors, tanning beds, and sun lamps aren't safe. Indoor tanning increases a person's melanoma risk by 75%.
- Be mindful when the sun is less intense for outdoor activities.
- Wear sunscreen as much as possible, preferably over SPF 30.
- Wear protective clothing like hats.
- Wear sunglasses with UV protection (Melanoma can occur in eyes).
Diagnosing Melanoma
Self Diagnosing:
- look at the moles on your skin because this is a good way to find melanoma.
There are different types of melanoma just like other cancers. One type can first appear as a brown or black streak underneath your nails. Melanoma also can appear like a bruise that won’t heal.
Dermatologist :
- looks at the patient’s skin. A dermatologist will carefully examine moles and other suspicious spots. To get a better look, a dermatologist may use a device called a dermoscope to view them better. He/she may feel the patient’s lymph nodes for abnormalities.
- If it looks like melanoma, the dermatologist will remove part of it. The removed skin will be sent to a lab for testing.
- Melanoma cannot be diagnosed without a biopsy.This biopsy is quick, safe, and easy for a dermatologist to perform
- If the biopsy says that the patient has melanoma, the report will tell the stage of the melanoma.
Treatment
Surgery:
- When treating melanoma, doctors want to remove all of the cancer. When the cancer has not spread, it is often possible for a dermatologist to remove the melanoma during an office visit. The patient often remains awake during the surgical procedures described below. These procedures are used to remove skin cancer:
Excision:
- To perform this, first the dermatologist numbs the skin. Then, the dermatologist surgically cuts out the melanoma from the affected area and some of the normal-looking skin around the melanoma. This normal-looking skin is called the margin. There are different types of excision. Most of the time, this can be performed at the dermatologist’s.
Mohs surgery:
- This surgery begins with the Mohs surgeon removing the visible part of the melanoma. Next, the surgeon starts removing the cancer cells. Cancer cells are not visible to us, so the surgeon removes this skin that may contain cancer cells one layer at a time.
- Clinical trial
- Adoptive T-cell therapy
- Palliative care
Who can get this
Anybody can get melanoma but It is more common in lighter skinned people.
How many people get this
Your not alone an estimated 76,380 new cases of invasive melanoma will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2016.