Melanoma is a cancer where the skin colour producing cells are involved. They are called as melanocytes. Melanoma is quite less in the Indian population because of the ability to tan. Tanning protects us from ultraviolet damage of the sunlight and hence we are less prone to melanoma than the Caucasians or the Europeans. However melanoma in Indians is more seen on the palms and the feet which are not seen with sun exposure, but it could be familial or genetic. When you see a dark spot which looks like a mole, it has irregular borders, or one of the part of the mole looks black, one part looks slightly brown, one looks slightly purple, that is it has different colours, then we suspect melanoma. If it bleeds spontaneously, then we suspect melanoma. If the surface of the mole – like growth is irregular, then we suspect melanoma. So there are certain criteria that we see that we do not suspect it as a regular mole, but it is a melanoma. When we see these characters, we take the biopsy of the particular area, we remove the entire area, along with a bit of normal skin and send it to a pathologist to examine. If the pathologist confirms it as a melanoma, a larger surgery has to be done, where the entire area, with a half a millimeter of skin surrounding the normal skin is removed. The best treatment for melanoma is most micrographic surgeries, where different pieces of the skin is removed and each part is examined whether it has cancerous cells immediately on the operating table. So if the left part of the skin has got cancer, then we keep removing till the cancerous part is fully gone. So this gives the best cure rates and very good improvement after surgeries. However melanoma when it is diagnosed by a doctor, it is very advanced stage and it may not give very good results by surgery alone and you might require other treatment like chemotherapy. So if you have any growth which is suspicious and which doesn’t look like a mole, it has change in colour, irregular shape, irregular surface, or multiple number are coming up, then immediately go to a doctor and get a biopsy done from that particular mole.

Presentation given by Joanne Jeter, MD as part of the AIM at Melanoma’s Patient & Caregiver Symposium on February 6, 2016 at the OSUCCC - James in Columbus, OH.