Melanoma is a cancer that starts in the skin cells. It can grow quickly and spread to other parts of the body.
Early-stage melanomas that are thin can usually be removed by surgery under local anaesthetic. This may leave a scar.
Medicines called targeted therapy and immunotherapy can help treat melanoma that has spread. These medicines affect how cancer cells grow, repair themselves and interact with other cells.
The symptoms of melanoma vary, depending on where the cancer has spread and how advanced it is. However, any new growth or change in an old spot that bleeds or doesn’t heal should be seen by your doctor straight away.
In the early stages, most melanomas are very thin and grow slowly. They usually have a round or oval shape and are a normal colour for the skin (brown, black or red). Sometimes they may be raised above the surrounding skin. These are called atypical melanomas. They are more likely to become invasive (spread) and potentially fatal if left untreated.
More advanced melanoma can spread to the lymph nodes or other parts of the body. When this happens, it can cause other signs and symptoms.
Some people with melanoma also have other health problems, such as arthritis, heart disease and nerve damage. These can affect their quality of life and how well they respond to treatment.
The most important thing is to look after your skin and notice any changes, especially in moles. If you have a new spot that looks different, is growing or changing quickly, isn’t the same colour as other moles or has an uneven edge and feels thicker than usual, see your doctor straight away.
If you have a family history of melanoma or two or more melanomas, it’s especially important to get regular skin checks from a GP and to follow up any new or changing spots. If your family members have had melanoma in the past, especially before the age of 40, you’re more likely to inherit a faulty gene that can lead to the disease.
Melanomas often appear in parts of the body that haven’t been exposed to much sun, such as the space between your toes or on your palms, soles of feet or under your nails (acral lentiginous melanoma). Melanomas can also develop in areas of the body that don’t normally get sun exposure, such as the inside of your eyes or mouth (intraocular and mucosal melanoma) and in the area around the genitals (malignant lentiginous nevus). These are known as hidden melanomas.
Melanoma skin cancer is diagnosed by examining the suspicious area of skin, taking a tissue sample (biopsy) and testing it to see if it has spread. Doctors also use a variety of other tests to learn if the melanoma has spread to other parts of the body, which is called metastasis. Your doctor may also have other tests to check your general health, such as blood tests. These might include checks for changes (mutations) in certain genes, such as the BRAF V600 gene.
Melanomas are usually found on sun-damaged skin, but they can appear anywhere on the body. They can be raised spots or lumps of different sizes and shapes, and they often have a darker colour than the surrounding skin. The most common signs of a melanoma are that it is asymmetrical, has ragged or notched borders, and is changing in shape or size.
When a GP diagnoses melanoma, they will refer you to a specialist. This might be a dermatologist or surgeon, depending on the type of melanoma and its stage. You will probably have a number of appointments with specialists and other health professionals to discuss the results of your tests and treatment options. These meetings are sometimes called multidisciplinary teams or MDTs.
During these appointments, your doctors will check how far your melanoma has spread (the stage). This information will help them decide which treatment to give you. Your doctors will test the lymph nodes near where your melanoma started. They will inject a special dye into the area. The first lymph nodes to take up the dye will be removed and tested to see if they have any cancer cells in them. If the melanoma has spread to the lymph nodes, it is in stage II of the staging system. If the melanoma has not spread to the lymph nodes, it is stage I.
You may also have other scans, such as a CT scan or a PET-CT scan. These create pictures of your body and can show whether your melanoma has spread.
There are several treatment options for people with melanoma. Your treatment plan will depend on the size of your melanoma and whether it has spread within the skin or to other parts of your body. You might have surgery, radiation therapy or biologic therapies (such as immunotherapy).
Surgery is the main treatment for melanoma. It involves cutting out the melanoma and a wider area around it. Your doctor may also recommend surgery if your melanoma has spread to other areas of your body.
If your melanoma is in the early stages, it’s unlikely that it will spread. But you still need to see a specialist, called a medical oncologist or dermatologist, regularly for follow-up examinations. They can find small melanoma cells that aren’t visible to the naked eye and can’t be felt under the skin.
If a biopsy shows that the melanoma hasn’t spread beyond the skin, you might not need further treatment. But if it has spread, your doctor might suggest a procedure called sentinel node biopsy. This involves injecting a dye that travels to the lymph nodes. The first lymph nodes to take up the dye are removed and tested for cancer cells. If the melanoma has spread to these lymph nodes, your doctor will usually remove them all (lymphadenectomy).
Your doctor might recommend chemotherapy with targeted medicines or immunotherapy after surgery. These medicines target specific genes or proteins that help cancer cells grow. Immunotherapy medicines boost your immune system so it can find and kill more cancer cells. You might also have radiation therapy after surgery to shrink any remaining tumors.
People with stage 4 melanoma, which means the melanoma has spread to other parts of the body, might not be able to be cured. But treatments such as radiation therapy can prolong survival and relieve symptoms.
A new type of immunotherapy is being studied for treating metastatic melanoma. This approach uses a lab-altered virus to infect and kill cancer cells, while at the same time boosting your own immune system so it can find and kill the cancer cells.
The most important way to prevent melanoma and other skin cancers is by staying out of the sun or using effective sunscreen when you do go in the sun. In addition, it is important to perform regular self-examinations of your body and to alert your doctor to any new or changing moles or other skin discolorations.
Overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the leading cause of all types of skin cancer, including melanoma. UV rays come mainly from the sun, but they can also be used in tanning beds. UV radiation damages the DNA of the skin, which can lead to abnormal growths like melanoma.
Most melanomas are caused by sun exposure but a few are caused by other factors, such as having a weakened immune system due to taking certain medicines or pregnancy. Other risk factors include having a family history of melanoma, having more than one new or changing mole and being diagnosed with another type of skin cancer in the past.
Race or ethnicity also affects melanoma rates, with White people more likely to get it than Black people. However, people of any race can develop melanoma. It is less common in children than other types of skin cancers, but melanoma in teens should be watched closely by doctors.
The first sign of melanoma is usually a change in the color or appearance of a mole. It may start as a small bump or grow to become a larger, raised spot with different color or a darker edge. The spot may bleed or itch as it grows, but the change is not always painful.
You can lower your risk of getting melanoma by protecting yourself from the sun and performing regular self-examinations of your skin. A good rule of thumb is to follow the ABCDEs when performing your daily skin checks:
Melanoma can appear anywhere on the body but is most common in areas that get sun exposure, such as the legs in women and the torso of men. It’s important to do monthly self-checks and see a dermatologist for any spots that look different, new or unusual.
A biopsy is a procedure that removes a small amount of tissue from a suspected lesion or mole and checks it under a microscope for cancer cells.
Itching is one of the common Melanoma cancer symptoms. The itch may be felt on the surface of the skin or deeper within the tissues. The itching can be intense and persistent, and often gets worse over time. Itching can make it difficult to sleep and to enjoy daily activities. The itching can be a result of the skin cancer, but there are also many other causes of the itch. Itching can occur when the skin is exposed to sunlight, especially if it has been sunburned. Itching can also be caused by a disease that affects the blood, such as Hodgkin’s lymphoma or cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Itching can also occur as a side effect of some medications.
It is important to see your GP if you notice changes in any mole, freckle or other normal patch of skin. The earlier a melanoma is picked up, the easier it is to treat. There is no organised screening programme for melanoma, but people at high risk should be taught to check their skin and have annual checks by a dermatologist.
A melanoma can look like a wart, crusty spot, ulcer or mole and can be painful or not. It can bleed and change shape over time. Usually a melanoma starts in a preexisting (previously harmless) mole and changes are usually spotted when the original spot is enlarged or when there is an unusual change in appearance, such as an uneven border, asymmetry, increased thickness, changing color or itching.
Melanoma can spread to other parts of the body through the lymph vessels. If this happens, it is likely that you will be treated by a multidisciplinary team including:
Many melanomas start as a new spot or change in an existing mole. But they can also grow in places that don’t usually get sun, such as under the nails (acral lentiginous melanoma) or on the membranes lining the mouth, genitals or anus (mucosal melanoma).
If you notice any unusual marks or changes to existing marks, see your doctor straight away. You should also check yourself regularly, particularly on areas that get a lot of sun. This helps to catch the cancer early. The earlier melanoma is caught, the easier it is to treat.
Often the first sign is pain. You might also notice that the mark is itchy or bleeding. But the pain can be different depending on where the melanoma is and how advanced it is. For example, it might be a dull or sharp pain. You might also feel a lump under the skin or have swollen lymph nodes.
It’s normal for spots and moles to change over time, especially during childhood and adolescence. But if you notice any changes to a spot, visit your GP. They will check the mark using a handheld magnifying device called a dermoscope and use a checklist of signs known as ABCDE.
If they suspect melanoma, they will usually perform a biopsy under local anaesthetic. This involves removing the mark and a small area around it. They will then send the sample for further tests to find out if it’s cancerous. The results of the biopsy can take a few days to come back. It’s normal to feel anxious while you wait for your results. So it’s important to talk to a friend or family member about how you are feeling.
Any bleeding spot that does not heal is a warning sign of cancer in the skin. This is common with Melanoma and may also be present with other types of skin cancers. Depending on the stage of melanoma, it may bleed as a crusted or scaly patch, an open sore, or in a more extensive, widespread pattern of bleeding. It can also cause a lot of pain, especially in the area surrounding the lesion.
The skin is the largest organ of the body. It serves many important functions, including protecting the body from injury and controlling temperature and fluid balance. Because it is so important, we must take care of it. That means self-examination and regular visits to a health professional to get it checked. A good way to do this is to examine your skin with a mirror or ask someone else to do so. You should be looking for the “ABCDEs” of melanoma:
Asymmetry (the two halves of the mole or freckle do not match). Irregular Borders that are ragged, scalloped, uneven or blurred. Changes in color (melanomas can be different shades of black, brown, tan, white, red or blue). Diameter that is greater than 6 millimeters or has grown larger since your last visit to the doctor.
Melanomas have a predisposition to spread to lymph nodes in the neck, where they can become enlarged. It is therefore very important to have any enlarged lymph nodes in the neck felt by a health professional to be certain that they are not a result of the melanoma. If they are, a biopsy can be carried out to remove the tissue for examination under a microscope.
Melanoma is usually a growth in the skin but can sometimes appear as a wart, crusty spot or ulcer. It may look different than other moles or spots on the body or change shape, size, color, or cause other symptoms such as itching or bleeding. If a preexisting mole or other mark on the body suddenly changes, if it is painful or bleeds or if you notice new marks on the body, contact your doctor. These are all warning signs that a melanoma could be developing.
Often, a melanoma has the appearance of an ugly duckling—one side doesn’t match the other. Also, the edges of a melanoma might look notched or scalloped, and the lesion may have varying shades of brown, tan, black or red. It may also have white or blue areas. Melanomas are typically larger than a pencil eraser (1/4 inch) in diameter, but can be smaller.
In more advanced melanoma, the texture of the skin can change and feel hard or lumpy. The skin on the surface may break down and become scraped or scab-like, or it can ooze or bleed.
When the melanoma reaches the lymph nodes, it’s called stage 3 melanoma. X-rays, ultrasound, computerized tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or positron emission tomography (PET) scans can be used to look for lymph nodes that have been affected by melanoma. Your doctor can then determine if the cancer has spread to these lymph nodes. He or she can also do a sentinel lymph node biopsy to find out if the cancer has reached other lymph nodes. Lymphedema is a possible side effect of lymph node removal, but massage therapy and compression sleeves can help improve the condition.
Melanoma is the most common form of skin cancer and it can occur in any part of the body. It is more likely to develop in areas that have been exposed to sunlight, especially the legs, arms and head. It can also form in the skin inside the mouth, on the genitals or under the nails. If melanoma spreads, it can also affect the lymph nodes (small glands that help to fight infection) in other parts of the body. These may become hard and swollen, feel like a lump or press on nerves.
Many people with melanoma don’t have any symptoms at first. This is because the tumour in the early stages grows slowly and is usually no bigger than a pencil eraser. If you notice a change in any mole or mark, check it regularly with a doctor and look out for the ABCDE warning signs of melanoma (see picture below).
Most people with melanoma will need surgery to remove it. They may also have other treatments such as immunotherapy, targeted therapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These can be used on their own or in combination and are tailored to each person depending on the size of the melanoma, where it is, how far it has spread and your general health.
If a GP suspects a melanoma, they will refer you to a specialist, such as a dermatologist or surgeon. They will arrange further tests and consider your treatment options at a multidisciplinary team meeting. You might be offered the chance to take part in a clinical trial of a new treatment or drug. If you decide to take part, ask questions about the trial and what it will involve.
A diagnosis of melanoma can be frightening. Your multidisciplinary team will explain your treatment options.
Thin, early-stage melanomas can often be treated with a minor operation under local anesthesia that removes the melanoma and a wider margin of healthy skin tissue. This will leave a scar.
Chemotherapy uses anti-cancer medicines to destroy cancer cells and stop them from growing or dividing. These may be given as tablets or injections into a vein (intravenous chemotherapy).
Melanoma that hasn’t spread to other parts of the body is treated by surgery. You may also need other treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy or immunotherapy.
The type of surgery you have depends on the size and depth of the melanoma. For smaller melanomas that are less than an inch (2.5 cm) in depth, doctors can usually use a surgical technique called local excision. This involves removing the growth and a small margin of healthy tissue around it with a scalpel. This is normally done under local anesthesia.
For a deeper melanoma, doctors might need to remove more of the skin tumor and surrounding tissue with a wider excision. The surgeon might then stitch the wound together or use dissolvable stitches. This can be done under a general anesthetic. The surgeon will also usually remove some of the lymph nodes in the area, especially those that drain fluid from the tumor site (lymph node dissection). This might help reduce the risk of the cancer spreading to nearby lymph nodes or other parts of the body.
If the melanoma has spread beyond the skin to other parts of the body, it’s more likely that it will be treated with surgery, chemotherapy or both. You might also need imaging tests such as X-rays or computed tomography (CT) scans. The most important thing is to find out whether the melanoma has spread (metastasized) to other sites in the body.
Doctors can look for signs of the melanoma spreading by checking your blood or taking a sample of your lymph nodes. They can check your blood for an enzyme called lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) which is released when the melanoma cells start to grow and spread. Your doctor might also take a sample of the lymph nodes that drain the area where the melanoma was and look for cancer cells in the sentinel node. If they are present, then the surgeon will remove these lymph nodes along with the other sentinel and nearby lymph nodes.
Doctors can also check if the melanoma has spread to other organs by looking for tiny black dots in your body (metastases). They can often find these using an ultrasound scan or CT scan.
Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that uses drugs to kill cancer cells. These drugs may be injected into your vein or taken by mouth as pills. When they are in the bloodstream, they travel to all parts of the body to attack cancer cells that have spread. It is rarely used alone and is usually given in combination with other treatments, such as immunotherapy or radiation.
If melanoma has spread to your lymph nodes, doctors will use a special procedure called a sentinel node biopsy. During this test, a dye is injected near the site of the tumor and flows to the lymph nodes in the area. The first lymph nodes to take up the dye are removed and tested for cancer cells. If the test shows that your melanoma has not spread to these lymph nodes, surgery may not be needed. However, if melanoma cells are found in the sentinel lymph nodes, you will likely have some of your nearby lymph nodes removed (lymph node dissection).
After surgery, you might have chemotherapy or radiation therapy to reduce the risk of melanoma spreading to other sites. Radiation can help destroy any remaining cancer cells and prevent them from growing or returning. The type of radiation used depends on your particular situation. For example, if the melanoma is in an area of the skin or head that comes into contact with critical structures, such as the eyes, nose, or mouth, we might recommend stereotactic radiosurgery.
In addition to radiation, we might suggest chemotherapy for people who have a large tumor or who don’t benefit from other treatment options. These medications can shrink or stop the growth of the melanoma, and can sometimes improve outcomes even in patients with advanced melanoma when combined with other treatment types, such as checkpoint blockade therapies or targeted therapy.
If your melanoma is advanced and cannot be cured with targeted therapy or immunotherapy, our team can refer you to a clinical trial of experimental new treatments. These carefully controlled studies of promising new therapies are often the only way to find more effective treatments for melanoma that has spread or returned after initial treatment.
Many early-stage melanomas are thin enough that they can be removed with minor surgery (under local anaesthetic). They are usually removed along with a wide margin of normal skin tissue, which will leave a scar. This procedure is called a wide local excision.
Radiation is often used in combination with surgery to treat advanced melanomas that have spread to the lymph nodes or other organs. This is called adjuvant therapy and may improve survival. Radiation can also be used as a palliative treatment for people with advanced melanoma.
For people with melanoma that has spread to the lymph nodes or other organs, radiation is used to kill any remaining cancer cells and relieve symptoms such as pain. Radiation is most commonly used to treat melanoma that has spread to stage IV disease, but it can also be used to treat stage III disease if the surgeon can’t remove all the involved lymph nodes surgically.
Chemotherapy is a systemic therapy that uses drugs to destroy cancer cells and stop them from growing or dividing. It can be given as a pill or as an injection into a blood vein. Several different types of chemotherapy can be used to treat melanoma.
Some melanoma patients are at increased risk of the cancer spreading to other parts of their body (metastasising). In these cases, doctors will often recommend radiation to the area where the melanoma has spread.
Radiotherapy for melanoma can be delivered using external beam radiation or proton beam radiation. The latter type of radiation can be more precisely targeted to the tumour site, which allows us to deliver a high dose of radiation with minimal impact on nearby healthy tissue. We can use a range of advanced radiation techniques, including intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT), to achieve high levels of precision. We can also deliver stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) to the brain, which is particularly useful for treating metastatic melanoma that has spread to this area. It is typically delivered in a single, one-day outpatient procedure. Several clinical trials have shown that combining SRS with targeted therapy can significantly improve outcomes.
In melanoma treatment, immunotherapy boosts the body’s natural immune system to attack cancer cells. It may be given as a pill or an injection into a blood vein. These drugs work by enhancing or blocking the immune system’s checkpoint molecules. Immunotherapies also stimulate the body’s natural defenses, such as phagocytes, which engulf and destroy abnormal cells.
For Stage III and IV melanoma, which have spread to the lymph nodes or other parts of the body, a combination of surgery and chemotherapy is often used. This can help shrink tumors and extend life by months to years, and in some cases lead to a cure.
Patients with melanoma that have defective BRAF genes can benefit from targeted therapy drugs that block this enzyme and other cell signaling pathways. A combination of two of these drugs, known as a BRAF/MEK inhibitor, works better than either one of the drugs alone.
These treatments are effective in most people with Stage IV melanoma, but they don’t work for everyone. Researchers are searching for ways to improve these therapies and find the ones that will work for more patients.
Some people have a reaction to these medications, which can cause flu-like symptoms such as chills, fever, muscle and joint aches or pain, loss of appetite (anorexia), vomiting and diarrhea. These side effects can occur within days of starting the medicine or many weeks or even months later. If they happen, it is important to tell your doctor or nurse so that you can be treated quickly.
Other melanoma treatment options include vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and other new therapies. For example, the PD-1 blocker, ipilimumab, was the first frontline treatment to significantly extend survival for people with advanced melanoma by encouraging the patient’s own immune system to kill melanoma cells.
Another approach uses immune-boosting cells taken from the patient and grown in the lab to target melanoma cells that have already spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body. This method, which is still in clinical trials, was pioneered at Saint John’s by Dr. Donald Morton, a co-founder of the institute.
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer. It usually starts in a normal mole and stays close to the surface of the skin for some time before it invades deeper tissues.
It may bleed, ulcerate or itch. Melanoma often grows in hard-to-spot areas including the soles of feet and palms of hands (acral lentiginous melanoma).
A key warning sign is asymmetry, where one half of the lesion does not match the other. The edges of a melanoma are usually ragged, notched or uneven and different shades of brown, black, tan or red.
This is the most common type of melanoma. It grows across the skin’s surface (the epidermis) and then into the lower layer of tissue (the dermis). It can occur anywhere on the body, but it’s more likely to develop on the trunk in men and the legs in women.
Symptoms include an uneven, growing spot that changes shape or color. It may also bleed or itch. You should contact your doctor if you notice a spot that doesn’t look right and keep an eye on any spots that grow or change over time.
Between 5 and 15 out of 100 melanomas are this type. They’re more common in people over 60 and appear in areas that get a lot of sun exposure. They often start in a slow-growing coloured patch of skin called a lentigo maligna freckle (also known as Hutchinson’s melanotic freckle). The cancer then spreads from the surface to deeper layers of the skin. If this happens, the melanoma becomes invasive and can spread to other parts of the body.
Most of these melanoma’s start in an existing mole, or nevus, and about 25% of them develop within a previously normal-appearing melanocytic naevus. It’s not clear what triggers the cells to become cancerous, but gene mutations seem to play a role.
A superficial spreading melanoma has a low chance of spreading to other parts of the body, but it’s important to have it and any other melanoma or pre-cancerous growths evaluated by your doctor. The results from a biopsy can help doctors determine how much the melanoma has spread and if it’s likely to return. This information helps doctors decide how to treat the melanoma.
Nodular melanoma is one of the more serious types of skin cancer. It can be difficult to diagnose because it looks like many common blemishes, including pimples, blood blisters, and other scars. It may be raised above the skin’s surface and feel firm to the touch. The size and color of the growth are important clues for doctors. The darker the melanoma, the greater the risk of it spreading to other parts of the body. It’s also important to know that the Breslow thickness and Clark level are not the only factors to consider when assessing the risk of a melanoma.
Nodular melanomas are more common in older people. They often appear on the skin that gets a lot of sun exposure. This includes the face, hands, and arms. They can be any color, but are more often pink, brown, or black. They can also look like a bump or a scab. Nodular melanomas can grow on top of existing moles or in areas where no blemishes existed before. They can be symmetrical or asymmetrical. They can even look like polyps or mushroom-like growths. Some have dots around them to help the surgeon identify the area they need to remove during surgery.
Doctors can sometimes spot a nodular melanoma on a physical exam, but they will need to check your health records and ask questions to make sure the diagnosis is accurate. They will need to know how long you’ve had the growth, whether it has changed or gotten bigger, and if it hurts when you touch it. A skin biopsy will be needed to confirm the diagnosis. The doctor will numb the area before taking a sample of the growth and send it to a laboratory to test for melanoma cells.
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) often grows slowly and is easily cured when it’s caught early. It usually occurs on sun-damaged skin. This type of cancer can sometimes spread to other parts of the body if it’s not treated quickly.
BCCs can grow in almost any part of the body, but they’re most common on the face, arms, legs and neck. They can look like a raised lump of tissue or a small dark patch that may bleed, itch or feel painful.
Some people may be able to spot a possible BCC by looking at their skin closely, but GPs and dermatologists can also check for changes in the appearance or texture of any spots on your body. They can then take a small sample to test in the laboratory (biopsy).
BCC is more likely to grow back after treatment than other types of skin cancers, especially if it’s left untreated for a long time. But it’s still important to get your skin checked regularly.
This will help your doctor to decide what sort of treatment is best for you, depending on the size, shape and location of the cancer and whether it’s your first or a recurrence. Your doctor can use different treatments for BCC, including electrodessication and curettage (removing the tumor with a tool called a curette and burning it with an electric needle) or surgery to cut out the cancerous lesion and a margin of healthy skin around it.
Other types of melanoma can also grow anywhere on the body but are much less common. Nodular melanoma tends to happen on sun-damaged skin, such as the head, neck or arm. Lentigo melanoma can be hard to see as it grows in small, flat and tan areas of your skin, such as on your palms or soles. It can appear as a dark bump, so it’s sometimes mistaken for a bruise or scar. The musician Bob Marley died of acral lentiginous melanoma, which appeared as a black spot under his toenails and was diagnosed too late to save him.
The skin is the largest organ in your body and acts as a barrier that protects the body from injury, controls body temperature, and prevents loss of body fluids. It is made up of two main layers, the epidermis and the dermis, which are separated by a layer of fatty tissue.
It is important to be aware of any mole, sore or lump that may not seem quite right. This is particularly true for any that bleed easily, change in shape or colour, or turn red or black. You should also regularly check any precancerous growths that are not currently causing symptoms, as these can turn into melanomas or other types of cancer over time.
If you suspect you have a melanoma or another type of skin cancer, see your doctor immediately. They will examine your skin and ask about any family history of the disease. If necessary, they will take a sample of the growth and send it to a laboratory for testing. This process can take a few days, and it can be very stressful while you wait for the results. It may help to talk about how you are feeling with a friend or family member, or to a cancer nurse for support.
Surgical excision (removal of the growth) is the treatment for most cases of melanoma and other types of skin cancer. A surgeon specialist called a dermatologist will usually perform this using a technique known as Mohs surgery, which allows the surgeon to remove only the tumour and a margin of healthy tissue around it.
This reduces the risk of recurrence. Sometimes, chemotherapy or radiation therapy is used in combination with surgery. Immunotherapy, which involves drugs that stop cancer cells from evading the immune system, is an option for high-risk advanced melanoma that cannot be removed with surgery alone.