Don’t mistake the early high-risk signals of sunburned melanoma

Melanoma is a type of skin cancer. Due to its high malignancy, it is called the "king of cancers." Although melanoma accounts for only 10% of skin cancers, it accounts for 80% of skin cancer mortality. According to experts, melanoma ranks fifth among all malignant tumors in Europe and the United States. The number of newly diagnosed cases in the United States has doubled in the past 30 years. In the United Kingdom, the incidence rate of men has increased by 28% and that of women has increased by 12% in the past five years. Melanoma is also showing a rapid upward trend in my country, with the incidence rate increasing fivefold in the past five years.

Sun exposure causes melanoma

Melanoma is the tumor with the fastest growing incidence among all malignant tumors. It is a malignant tumor of the skin caused by abnormal excessive proliferation of melanocytes. It is highly malignant, prone to recurrence and metastasis, and has a very poor prognosis.

The cause of melanoma is still unclear. In Western countries, the incidence rate of white people is much higher than that of people of color. The main sites of melanoma are the head, face, trunk and skin. In Asia, more than half of melanomas occur on the hands, feet, limbs, skin and under the nails. The known causes are mainly excessive ultraviolet radiation and gene mutations caused by various pollution. The high-risk factors for melanoma are: photosensitive skin that is prone to freckles; sensitive skin that is prone to freckles after sun exposure; long-term exposure to the sun; a large number of common moles or dysplastic moles; personal or family history of melanoma.

Find early melanoma symptoms

Experts say that malignant melanoma is caused by the malignant transformation of melanocytes. The benign proliferation of melanocytes forms pigmented nevi, and if this proliferation gets out of control, it will transform into melanoma.

Generally, benign pigmented nevi are divided into intradermal nevi, junctional nevi and mixed nevi. Benign pigmented nevi have neat and even edges, are black or dark brown, and are symmetrical. The characteristics of malignant changes of pigmented nevi are: the edges are irregular, irregularly winding and twisted; they are not all black, but are mixed colors, interlaced, and usually cannot be divided into two symmetrical parts by a straight line; they are very small and difficult to detect at the beginning, but they grow progressively, can rapidly increase in a short period of time, and may even rupture and bleed, rupture again after healing, and repeatedly fail to heal.

Through self-examination, people can often find those moles that may have changed, and improve their awareness of melanoma. Although melanoma is terrible, if it is found early, the prognosis is relatively good. Except for a small number of melanomas that occur in the anus, vulva, mouth, nasopharynx and eyes, most melanomas occur on the skin, which are all parts we can see. Therefore, having certain knowledge of identifying melanoma, being able to detect melanoma early, and improving the early diagnosis rate of melanoma can save lives.

Experts warn that if you find that your mole has the following changes, you should be highly vigilant:

① Pigmented nevus grows rapidly in a short period of time.

②The color of the pigmented nevus changes significantly.

③ The edge of the pigmented mole becomes irregular or small satellite-shaped black moles appear, or several moles fuse together, and the surface becomes uneven.

④ Pigmented nevus may rupture due to unintentional touch and will never heal.

⑤The lymph nodes near the pigmented nevus become swollen.

Don't miss early warning signs

Almost 95% of patients found abnormalities in moles one year before obvious changes. But they either ignored them or even mistakenly believed that as long as it didn't hurt or itch and didn't affect my life, I could ignore it. But they didn't know that malignant melanoma is exactly painless and doesn't itch, and doesn't affect life in the early stage. There are even more wrong methods such as cutting with a knife, strangling with a rope, or even pinching salt or garlic on it, which actually accelerates the metastasis of primary melanoma.

When you find high-risk signs of early melanoma, or have doubts about your mole, do not be careless, and do not scratch or scrape it. You must see an experienced specialist in time. If the specialist thinks there is a possibility of melanoma, he or she will usually recommend that you have a standardized complete removal of the mole and send it for pathological examination. The results of the pathological diagnosis will clearly indicate whether it is melanoma.