Melanoma is the most life-threatening type of skin cancer.  This disease is diagnosed in more than 50,000 people each year in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The prevalence of melanoma in the US has doubled in the past 30 years.

What is melanoma?

Melanoma is a type of skin cancer. It begins in cells in the skin called melanocytes, the pigment cells. When the disease starts in the skin, it is called cutaneous melanoma. When it occurs in the eye, it is called ocular melanoma or intraocular melanoma. Melanoma can occur in other areas, but rarely.

In men, melanoma is often found on the trunk (the area between the shoulders and the hips) or the head and neck. In women, it often occurs on the lower legs.

What are the causes for melanoma?

No one knows exactly what causes melanoma. Doctors can seldom explain why one person develops the disease while another does not.

However, some possible risk factors have been established including a type of mole called dysplastic nevi, a high number of ordinary moles (more than 50), fair skin, personal history of melanoma or skin cancer, family history of the disease, weakened immune system, severe, blistering sunburns and ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

What are the signs suggesting that a lesion may be melanoma?

Melanoma often looks ugly in terms of its shape and color.   People can make a sound judgment based the so called ABCD rules.

A means asymmetry:   The shape of one half does not match the other.

B means border:   The edges of melanoma are often ragged, notched, blurred or irregular and the pigment may spread into the surrounding skin.

C means color:   The color is uneven.

D means diameter: Melanomas are often larger than the eraser of a pencil (5 millimeter or 1/4 inch.)

Can melanoma spread to other organs?

Melanoma can spread to other organs.   When melanoma spreads, its cells can show up in lymph nodes and when the cancer cells reach the lymph nodes, they may have spread to other parts of the body such as the liver, lungs, or brain and develop metastatic melanoma in those organs.

How can melanoma be diagnosed clinically?

When a doctor suspects a spot on the skin is melanoma, he may order a biopsy, which is the only way to make a definite diagnosis.

How is melanoma staged?

Once the diagnosis is melanoma, the doctor would have to determine the stage of the disease before planning treatment. The stage of the disease will determine the way how a patient gets treated.   The doctor may stage the disease based on whether melanoma cells have spread to nearby lymph nodes or other parts the body.   The doctors may also do physical exam, chest x-rays, blood tests and scans of the liver, bones and brain for the staging.   There are a total of five stages from stage 0 to stage IV.

How is melanoma treated?

Treatment for melanoma depends on the stage of the disease, the patient's age and general health and other factors.   Treatment may be managed by a team of specialists including a dermatologist, surgeon, medical oncologist, radiation oncologist and plastic surgeon.

Treatments for melanoma include surgery, chemotherapy, biological therapy or radiation therapy.   Treatments may also include symptom management, supportive care or palliative care, which are used to control and manage pain and other symptoms.