Melanoma is diagnosed after excision in 8.2% of atypical intraepidermal melanocytic proliferation (AIMP) samples. (Blank, 2019).

🚩 Early diagnosis is the best method to improve melanoma prognosis (Corneli, 2018).

Cutaneous melanoma is the sixth most common malignant cancer in the USA.
(Corneli, 2018).

Diagnostic Tests: skin exams and biopsy. ⚠ A biopsy can can be a punch biopsy, excisional biopsy, or incisional biopsy.

Early stage melanoma: surgery to remove the melanoma. ❗ Early treatment options for melanoma therapy focues on the use of cytokines as a means of stimulating the immune system (McGettigan, 2018).

Border - irregular, notched, blurred

Common risk factors are environmental and life styles: exposure to UV radiation, family history of melanoma, immune suppression, fair skin and inability to tan easily, hypersensitivity to sunlight, blue eyes, blonde and red hair (Allam, 2015).

⚠Presence of 2 risk factors
increases the risk of cutaneous melanoma by 2–4 times
⚠presence of 3 or more risk factors increases the risk
by 20 times (Allam, 2015).

❗ Treating melanoma that has spread beyond the skin: surgery to remove affected lymph node, chemotherapy, radiation, targeted therapy such as medications.

Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, develops in the cells (melanocytes) that produce melanin — the pigment that gives your skin its color. Melanoma can also form in your eyes and, rarely, in internal organs, such as your intestines.

The exact cause of all melanomas is not very clear or well known, but exposure to UV radiation from sunlight or tanning beds increases your risk of developing melanoma.

✅Limiting your exposure to UV radiation can help reduce your risk of melanoma.