Prevention of Melanomas

Skin moles are so common that just about every person will develop one or more sometime in his/her life. Despite this fact, skin moles are among the most difficult skin conditions for modern medicine to properly treat. Most nevi are brown or black in color. They are so common that they have a wide range of classifications.

In medical terms, a mole is referred to as a melanocytic nevus. Moles appear on the skin as flat or raised dark spots, which can vary dramatically in size and shape, occurring virtually anywhere on the body. A mole is formed when melanin, which is a brown pigment produced by skin cells, develops in high concentrations on the skin.

Fortunately, the vast majority of moles are benign and pose no health threat, though they can be unsightly, which causes many people to seek their removal. However, in some instances, a mole can develop into a cancerous melanoma. If a mole is suspected to be a melanoma, it is important to have a test done to confirm this.

Minimizing exposure to sources of ultraviolet radiation, following sun protection measures and wearing sun protective clothing can offer protection. In the past it was recommended to use sunscreens with an SPF rating of 30 or higher on exposed areas as older sunscreens more effectively blocked UVA with higher SPF.

Currently, newer sunscreen ingredients (avobenzone, zinc, and titanium) effectively block both UVA and UVB even at lower SPFs. However, there are questions about the ability of sunscreen to prevent melanoma. This controversy is well discussed in numerous review articles, and is refuted by most dermatologists.

This correlation might be due to the confounding variable that individuals who used sunscreen to prevent burn might have a higher lifetime exposure to either UVA or UVB. Tanning, once believed to help prevent skin cancers, actually can lead to increase incidence of melanomas. Even though tanning beds emit mostly UVA, which causes tanning, it by itself might be enough to induce melanomas.

A good rule of thumb for decreasing ultraviolet light exposure is to avoid the sun between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. or avoid the sun when your shadow is shorter than your height. These are rough rules, and can vary depending on locality and individual skin cancer risk. When looking for danger signs in pigmented lesions of the skin a few simple rules are often used.

Almost all malignant melanomas start with altering the color and appearance of normal-looking skin. This area may be a dark spot or an abnormal new mole. Other melanomas form from a mole or freckle that is already present in the skin. It is very hard to distinguish the difference between a malignant melanoma and a normal mole.

Confirmation of the clinical diagnosis is either done with an excisional skin biopsy or a small full thickness sampling with a punch skin biopsy. This is usually followed with a follow up wider excision of the scar or tumor. Depending on the stage a sentinel lymph node biopsy is done as well, although controversy exists around trial evidence for this procedure.

Laser and electrocautery treatments are not always effective because they only reach the outermost layers of the skin, while moles penetrate very deep into the dermal tissue, often beyond the reach of these treatments. Surgery, the other option doctors commonly offer, involves cutting out the mole. The resulting wound requires stitches, which will in turn leave a scar.