Superficial spreading melanoma

Other Names: Low Degree of Cumulative Sun Damage Melanoma

Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer. It is the leading cause of death from skin disease. Superficial spreading melanoma is the most common type. It is usually flat and irregular in shape and color, with different shades of black and brown. It is most common in Caucasians.

Causes

Melanoma is caused by changes (mutations) in skin cells called melanocytes. These cells make a skin color pigment called melanin. Melanin is responsible for skin and hair color.

Melanoma can appear on normal skin. Sometimes it can develop from moles. Moles that are present at birth may develop into melanomas. Larger moles that are present at birth may be at higher risk of developing melanoma.

Risk factors

The risk of developing melanoma increases with age, though the risk is rising in young people.

You are more likely to develop melanoma if you:

• Have fair skin, blue or green eyes, or red or blond hair
• Live in sunny climates or at high altitudes
• Spent a lot of time in high levels of strong sunlight because of a job or other activities
• Have had one or more blistering sunburns during childhood
• Use tanning devices

Other risk factors include:

• Having close relatives with melanoma
• Certain types of moles (atypical or dysplastic) or many birthmarks
• Weakened immune system due to disease or medicines

Signs and symptoms

Often, this disease evolves from a precursor lesion, usually a dysplastic nevus. Otherwise it arises in previously normal skin. A prolonged radial growth phase, where the lesion remains thin, may eventually be followed by a vertical growth phase where the lesion becomes thick and nodular. As the risk of spread varies with the thickness, early SSM is more frequently cured than late nodular melanoma.

Diagnosis

Your provider will check your skin and look at the size, shape, color, and texture of any suspicious areas. The provider should use a tool called a dermoscope to examine you. Using this device may allow for earlier detection of melanoma. If your provider thinks you might have skin cancer, a piece of skin from the growth will be removed. This is called a skin biopsy. The sample is sent to a lab for examination under a microscope.

A sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLN) may be done in some people with melanoma to see if the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes.

Once melanoma has been diagnosed, CT scans or other types of x-rays may be done to see if the cancer has spread.

Treatment

Treatment is by excisional biopsy, wide local excision and possibly sentinel node biopsy. Spread of disease to local lymph nodes or distant sites (typically brain, bone, skin and lung) marks a decidedly poor prognosis.

The medication(s) listed below have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as orphan products for treatment of this condition.

• Aldesleukin (Brand name: Proleukin)Treatment of adults with metastatic melanoma.

NIH genetic and rare disease info

• NIH info on Superficial spreading melanoma

Superficial spreading melanoma is a rare disease.

Superficial spreading melanoma Resources
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