How should pregnant women treat melanoma

Melanoma is more likely to occur during pregnancy, but pregnancy does not increase the possibility of a mole becoming malignant. During pregnancy, the shape and size of a mole often change. The following danger signs indicate that a mole has become malignant: changes in size, color, redness, whiteness, or blueness, especially the spread of the pigmented area to the surrounding normal skin; changes in surface features, texture, and shape; especially inflammation of the skin around the mole, which may cause bleeding, ulcers, itching, or pain.

Melanoma treatment guide

Radiation therapy for melanoma:

It is only effective for some very early symptoms of melanoma, such as freckle-type malignant melanoma, and is generally ineffective for other primary lesions. Therefore, radiotherapy is generally not used for primary lesions, but for metastatic lesions. However, radiotherapy also brings some complications, such as radiation dermatitis, keratitis and cataracts, and sometimes secondary glaucoma. If surgical resection and radiotherapy are ineffective, and the cancer has metastasized to the brain, other treatments can only be given.

Surgery for melanoma:

Surgical resection is the first choice for treating melanoma. Once diagnosed, surgical resection should be performed as soon as possible. The scope of resection should be determined according to the type and location of the tumor: lesions on the limbs and back generally include more than 5 cm of normal tissue outside the tumor tissue; for those who are difficult to extensively resect on the face, at least 2 cm of normal tissue outside the tumor tissue should be resected. The depth of resection should include subcutaneous, fascial and muscle tissue to prevent the spread or metastasis of tumor cells. Skin grafting is required after large-scale resection. The tissue defects caused by resection are generally temporarily repaired with simple methods. After a period of observation without recurrence, plastic repair surgery will be considered. While resecting the primary tumor, local lymph node resection is also performed according to the stage of the disease.

Chemotherapy for melanoma:

Malignant melanoma is not sensitive to chemotherapy drugs. Commonly used drugs include dacronyl nitrosamine (DTIC), chloroethyl nitrosamine (BCNU), cyclohexyl nitrosamine (CCNU), hydroxyl uni (HU), and sarcoma lysine. Chemotherapy is highly targeted and effective, but the toxic and side effects of the drugs are also very obvious. Most patients who undergo chemotherapy will experience nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite, so it should not be used frequently.

Traditional Chinese Medicine for Melanoma Treatment:

The fourth therapy for tumor treatment is mainly for patients in the middle and late stages. It uses two special functional cells of the human immune system to deal with tumor cells. While effectively killing tumor cells through traditional Chinese medicine, it can also repair and enhance the human immune system, giving tumor cells no chance to metastasize. Traditional Chinese medicine combined with surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy can systematically kill tumor cells and effectively solve their metastasis and spread, overcoming the shortcomings of traditional treatment methods such as "incomplete, easy to metastasize, and large side effects".

In the comprehensive treatment methods for melanoma, Chinese medicine and Western medicine each have their own strengths. We need to update our understanding of cancer. The viewpoints of modern evidence-based medicine and Chinese medicine's dialectical treatment have the same goal. We should treat cancer as a chronic disease and focus on moderate treatment. Just like living with hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes for a long time, people with cancer can also enjoy a better quality of life by "living with the disease."