Recognizing Early Melanoma With The ABCDE Rule
A QUICK OVERVIEW OF THE MELANOMA SKIN CANCER:
Melanoma is a malignant skin tumor that has its origin in the cells of the skin that are responsible for the production of melanin, the dark pigment that gives color to our skin. These cells are known as melanocytes from which this skin cancer is named.
Melanoma can occur in all parts of the human body where the melanocytes cells are normally present. It can be found mainly in the skin but also in mucous membranes, in the eye (ocular melanoma) and in the meninges.
Nowadays there is a high frequency of this cancer and it’s still increasing in the population being a little bit higher in females. Melanoma cancer has a tendency to affect adults with an age range varying from 35 to 65 years. Cases of melanoma within 30 years happen rarely.
According to the World Health Organization, each year in the world are diagnosed around 160,000 cases of malignant melanoma tumor and the deaths related to this disease are about 48,000 per year.
High rates of this skin cancer can be found in caucasian light-skinned people that live in sunny climate countries such as North America, Australia, Northern Europe and New Zealand.
RECOGNIZING EARLY SYMPTOMS OF MELANOMA SKIN CANCER WITH THE ABCDE RULE:
The melanoma skin cancer develops on a clinically normal skin in the majority of patients. Since people usually do not develop new melanocytic moles or nevi in adult age, if this happens, the patient should consult his physician as soon as possible for clinical evaluation of the new mole.
In other people melanomas originate from pre-existent moles or nevi that evolve over time changing their shape, color or size. In these cases too, the patient should be aware and refer immediately to a specialized doctor.
Early signs of melanoma are changes to the color, shape, size; bleeding or itching of existing moles or nevi; or the appearance of new lesions on the skin.
These early signs or symptoms are summarized by the “ABCDE rule”:
Asymmetry of the skin lesion.
Borders: the lesion has irregular borders.
Color: in the majority of cases melanomas have many varied colors.
Diameter: usually melanomas have a diameter greater than 6 mm.
Enlarging or Evolving over time.
For detecting the melanoma tumor, visual diagnosis is commonly used even by health professionals these days and the “ABCDE rule” plays an important role. It’s highly recommended to know what a melanoma cancer looks like, paying attention to suspicious moles, lesions or nevi and consulting a dermatologist without delay.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Finally, if you are interested in more information about the melanoma skin cancer or you want to see some malignant melanoma pictures for learning how this skin cancer looks like, please check out my website at TheMelanomaSkinCancer.com.
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