Skin Cancer Signs

Skin Cancer Signs are Important to Know About

It is important to know about the skin cancer warning signs because, if you have skin cancer, you’ll want to know about it early.  If you know about skin cancer signs early, you can have the skin cancer treated before it gets too deep.  Serious skin cancer might be disfiguring and some can be deadly.

Skin cancer signs are different depending on the skin cancer types you might have.  If you read information on skin cancer, you can see pictures of skin cancer types and the signs associated with them.

Skin cancer warning signs are things on the skin that look different from normal skin.  It can be a raised or flat lesion; it can be pigmented or not; it can be scaly or pearly.  Skin cancer signs are important to look for.

You can have your doctor examine your skin at every physical exam so that you can have areas of your body checked that you can’t see.

Skin Cancer Signs for Basal Cell Carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common type of cancer.  The skin cancer signs of cancer include having a pearly white lesion, usually on the nose and face.  Basal cell cancer can invade tissue and go deeper in the body but doesn’t go to other body places.

If you notice a pearly lesion on the skin, you should see your doctor about having it biopsied or removed.  All of the lesion must be removed, including the deeper portions.  An excisional biopsy can be done that removes the lesion and checks it under the microscope.

The usual cause of basal cell carcinoma is exposure to the sun.  If you have blistering sunburns on your nose, face, neck or chest, you should watch these areas carefully for basal cell carcinoma by the time you are in your 40s, 50s or 60s.

Basal cell cancer is one of the skin cancer types that can happen earlier than age 40.

Skin Cancer Signs for Squamous Cell Cancer

Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common type of skin cancer.  It looks completely different from basal cell carcinoma.  Instead of being pearly, squamous cell cancer is scaly.  You should see a rough base with scales overlying it.

Squamous cell cancer can look darker than regular skin or the same color as regular skin.  It usually isn’t itchy and can look small or can be a patch of scaly skin.  This patch of scaly skin is called a solar keratosis or actinic keratosis before it turns into cancer.

Squamous cell cancer, according to information on skin cancer, can also look like a big horn that sticks up above the skin.  This horn is usually seen on elderly men or women.  At the base of the horn is usually squamous cell cancer so it doesn’t do well to just remove the horn and leave the base behind.

Skin Cancer Signs for Malignant Melanoma

Malignant melanoma represents only about 5 percent of skin cancer types but it is the most deadly.  In fact, almost 80 percent of men and 90 percent of women survive malignant melanoma.  The thinnest tumors are easiest to get rid of and are less likely to be fatal.

The skin cancer signs of malignant melanoma include a changing mole, especially if it becomes black or multicolored.  If the mole spreads beyond its raised border, this is one of the skin cancer warning signs.  If you get an irregular patch of pigment on your skin that wasn’t there before, this is a sign of malignant melanoma.

Malignant melanoma comes from sun exposure or exposure to tanning bed light.  You should avoid getting a blistering sunburn using sunscreen so that you have a better chance of not getting malignant melanoma or other skin cancer types.

One of the skin cancer signs you need to worry about includes those of amelanotic melanoma.  This type of melanoma has no pigment so it is skin colored or white in color.  If it is raised, you might detect it early enough.  If it is flat, it might go too deep before you finally discover it.  It does not look like other melanomas.

Summary

Skin cancer signs vary according to the type of skin cancer.  All three of the major skin cancers have different skin cancer warning signs.  Basal cell carcinoma looks pearly and white in color; squamous cell carcinoma looks scaly and irritated.  Melanoma is made by melanocytes so it is usually pigmented, like a freckle or mole.

The earlier you detect carcinoma of the skin or malignant melanoma, the less destructive the cancer will be.  Thin melanomas are easier to remove than thick ones.  Thin melanomas are easier to survive from than thicker melanomas.

If you read information on skin cancer, you’ll see pictures of what the various skin cancers look like so you know the skin cancer signs before cancer gets too far.

Dr. Christine Traxler

4 14 2010