Malignant Melanoma Descriptions

One particularly dangerous hazard of being out in the sun is skin cancer, and one of the most dangerous types of skin cancer is melanoma. A malignant melanoma is a potentially life threatening condition; this type of cancer comes from a mutation of the kinds of cells that give your skin a pigment, called a 'melanocyte'. It's a fairly common type of cancer, and is much more common in people with fair skin than people with darker skin. If it's not treated, it can spread and become fatal.

There are four categorized types of melanoma. These include:

Lentigo maligna melanoma, which happens mostly in older patients, on places that get exposed to the sun. It will usually resemble a light brown or black freckle with a central bump.

A superficial spreading melanoma, which goes across the surface of the skin; an irregular patch of skin shaded in black, gray, tan, blue or white may be an indicator.

Nodular melanomas are dome shaped bumps that can occur on any part of the skin. They may be shiny or waxy, and can have a scaly color, as well as being black, dark brown, red or blue. Nodular melanomas are the most dangerous variety of melanoma, and make up about one sixth of all cases.

There is a rare type of melanoma of the fingers, toes, palms and soles of the feet, called Acral-lentiginous melanoma. It's most common in Asians and black people.

One of the reasons why Melanoma can be dangerous is because most people mistake them for moles, and they don't get treated before they spread. Here's a handy rule of thumb to go through, called the ABCD rule to check your own moles for signs of suspicion.

If the mole is asymmetric, it may be a melanoma. Likewise, if the mole has no clearly defined border - if it fades in and out, or is otherwise irregular, or scalloped, it's may be a melanoma. Colors in melanomas tend to be spread or mixed, or colors that are somewhat unusual (like tan, gray, or blue). And finally, diameter - large moles in excess of 6 millimeters should be checked out by a doctor.

Most of the risk factors for malignant melanoma stem from heredity (if your relatives had it, you're likelier to have it), ethnicity (it's much more common in people of Caucasian descent) and sunlight - having a deep sunburn or a repeated pattern of deep sunburns, is a high risk factor, especially if they happened to you early as a child.

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