Recently you have heard the news that there are more than 50000 of new melanoma cases every year. This number grows 3% a year.

Melanos = black, oma = tumor.

You can detect melanoma by self-exam. Skin cancers show themselves much easier than any other types of cancer.

There are numerous sites dedicated to melanoma self-exam. Just type in the word "melanoma" into any search engine. Follow instructions.

Fair skin people have more chances of getting melanoma. However, dark skin people develop melanoma too. Everybody has moles. Women even use moles to charm.

How to find if your mole became dangerous?

• Asymmetry
• Border
• Color
• Diameter
   

A- asymmetry. Suspicious mole does not look like a round or oval blot. Often, early melanoma looks rather like a blot with an odd shape.

B- borders. Borders become irregular, uneven, fuzzy. The edges of the blots become notched.

C- color. Color of normal mole should be more or less homogenous. Change in color is very suspicious . There are shades of brown, black, tan, red. Mottled color is suspicious.

D- diameter. Change in diameter is suspicious too. Mole that is bigger than 6 mm is suspicious. Everybody compares 6 mm to a pencil eraser (though few people actually use it extensively). Just to get idea about the borderline size.

Besides ABCD there could be other signs of dangerous mole:

E - enlargement and elevation over the time

Also worrisome signs include easy bleeding and erythema (redness) around the mole.

Itching and pain in the side of mole make you suspicious as well.

History of melanoma in Family should also raise suspicions.

Some skin problems look like melanoma, but are actually harmless. Anyway, do not gamble with them. Even experienced physician can not always tell if the lesion is malignant or not. It is better to be safe then sorry and check the troubling changes soon.

Some rare types of melanoma exist. Because even obvious melanomas are not always diagnosed on time, the unusual types becomes much more deadlier. Often doctor sees them too late.

Melanoma under the nails. Melanoma of mucous membranes. (Mouth, nose or guts) Amelanotic melanoma - this one is not even colored.

The treatment will be excision with margins and biopsy, but most important of course is to catch melanoma Know that the treatment depends on the thickness of the tumor and the presence of distant metastasis.

Surgeon or dermatologist cuts off the melanoma. Then, Pathologist (doctor specializing in lab diagnostics) looks the sample under microscope.

There is also Clarks classification that measures penetration of the melanoma into the skin and other layers.

Keywords: Melanoma, mole, nevus, dermatology, pathology, surgeon