Cancer from A to Z

Sunlight Exposure - Exposure to sunlight, especially a history of severe blistering sunburn, has been associated with increased risk of melanoma. Exposure to UV-B radiation accounts for about two-thirds of melanoma cases. Artificial sunlight from tanning beds carries the same risk for melanoma as natural sunlight.

Fair Complexion - People with blond or red hair, light skin, blue eyes and a tendency to sunburn are at increased risk.

Previous Melanoma - For melanoma survivors, the risk of developing a second melanoma is 3 to 7%, much higher than the general population.

Moles (nevi) - The presence of large numbers of benign moles is associated with an increased risk of melanoma, although they are not likely a precursor of disease.

Family History/Genetics - At least four distinct genes may play a role in melanoma development, and specific gene mutations have been identified that may contribute to increased risk of melanoma.

Atypical Mole & Melanoma Syndrome (AMS) - Previously known as dysplastic nevus syndrome, AMS is characterized by large numbers of atypical moles, which can indicate increased risk. Although the likelihood of an atypical mole progressing to melanoma is small, AMS patients should be screened regularly, along with other family members.

Reducing Your Risk
 

You can take action to reduce your risks of developing skin cancer. MD Anderson suggests:

Using sunscreen. Choose an SPF 15 or higher, put it on 30 minutes before going outside and follow product directions for reapplication.

Finding shade. Look for shady areas under an umbrella or tarp. Better yet, stay indoors between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

Covering up. Wear a shirt or other cover-up to protect your skin from the sun.

Wearing a hat. Pick one with a large brim to protect the ears and neck.

Putting on sunglasses. Buy inexpensive sunglasses to protect your eyes from harmful UV rays.

Protecting your children. Babies under six months of age should be completely shielded from direct sun exposure. Apply sunscreen to infants over six months of age, and teach older children to make applying sunscreen a regular habit before they go out to play.

Avoiding the use of tanning beds or other artificial sunlight sources. Tanning beds are not safe alternatives to the sun.

Screening
 

Look for changes as well as new growths. Learn the ABCs of melanoma:

Asymmetry of lesion: Are both sides of the lesion different?
Border irregularity: Are the edges notched as opposed to smooth?
Color variegation: Is the lesion a mixture of black, blue, red and white?
Diameter: Is the diameter greater than six millimeters? (Most melanomas are larger than the head of a pencil.)
Evolution: Is the lesion growing in width or height?
Feeling: Has the sensation around a mole or spot changed?
These recommendations serve as a guide. Promptly show your doctor any suspicious skin area, non-healing sore or change in a mole or freckle. If exam results suggest cancer, more extensive diagnostic tests should be conducted.

Skin cancer can't be diagnosed merely by looking at it. If a mole or pigmented area of the skin changes or looks abnormal, your doctor may choose to biopsy the mark, taking a tissue sample for a pathologist to examine. Suspicious areas should not simply be shaved off or cauterized (destroyed with a hot instrument, an electrical current or a caustic substance). A biopsy should be performed first to determine if the area is malignant.

Biopsy
 

Several techniques are used to perform skin biopsies. For skin cancer, your doctor will most likely use a technique known as local excision, in which the entire suspicious area is removed with a scalpel under local anesthetic. Depending on the size and location of the suspicious area on your body, you may have this type of biopsy done in a doctor's office or possibly as an outpatient at a hospital. Your doctor will put in stitches to close the excision and cover the area with a bandage.

Some doctors use other biopsy techniques called punch biopsies or shave biopsies. In a punch biopsy, the doctor uses a tool to punch through the suspicious area and extract a round cylinder of tissue. In a shave biopsy, the doctor simply shaves off a piece of the growth. Both of these types of biopsies are usually done in a doctor's office. If the tissue is malignant, further excision will be necessary.

The sample of skin is sent to a pathologist, who looks at the tissue under a microscope to check for cancer cells. Your tissue may be judged normal or abnormal. Abnormal results may include benign growths such as moles, warts and benign skin tumors or may mean a diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma or melanoma. Because melanoma can be hard to diagnose, patients should consider having their biopsy sample checked by a second pathologist.

As with any time the skin is cut, there is a small risk of infection after a biopsy. You should call your doctor if you have a fever, an increase in pain, reddening, or swelling at the infection site, or continued bleeding. If your skin usually scars when injured, the biopsy may leave a scar. For this reason, a biopsy on the face might be better performed by a plastic surgeon or dermatologist who specializes in techniques that reduce scarring. If a large area is biopsied, a skin graft may be required to cover it.

Before you have a skin biopsy, you should tell your doctor what medications you are taking, including anti-inflammatories, which may make your biopsy look different to the pathologist, or blood thinners like Coumadin or aspirin, which could cause bleeding problems.

Staging
 

When you are diagnosed with melanoma, your doctor will tell you what stage melanoma you have. "Stage" is a way to describe the severity of a cancer by incorporating information about its location, size, whether it has spread to nearby lymph nodes and whether it has metastasized to other parts of the body. In the case of melanoma, stages I and II are based mainly on the thickness of the cancer and how many layers of skin it has invaded. Stages III and IV are based on how far the melanoma has spread from the skin. Staging is based on a combination of physical examination, biopsy, and investigation of the lymph nodes and other parts of the body.

After melanoma has been diagnosed, tests are done to find out if cancer cells have spread within the skin or to other parts of the body.

Stage 0 (Melanoma in situ)

Does not reach below the surface of the skin.
Stage I

Stage IA melanoma is less than one millimeter thick and has not ulcerated. It is most likely present only in the top layer of the skin.
Stage IB melanoma also may be less than one millimeter thick but has ulcerated (become an open sore) and may have grown into deeper layers of the skin.
Stage II

Stage IIA melanoma is either one to two millimeters thick with ulceration or two to four millimeters thick with no ulceration.
Stage IIB melanoma is either two to four millimeters thick with ulceration or more than four millimeters thick without ulceration.
Stage IIC melanoma is more than four millimeters thick with ulceration.
Stage III

Stage III melanoma has spread to the lymph system or directly into the lymph nodes near the cancer, and may also have spread directly from the original tumor to areas more than four centimeters away (but not to farther lymph nodes).
Stage IV

Stage IV melanoma has metastasized to more distant lymph nodes and/or to other organs.

Surgery
 

Melanomas Less Than One Millimeter Thick

A thin melanoma--one that is less than one millimeter thick (stage 1A or 1B)--is usually treated with a wide local excision of the skin, in which the surgeon cuts out the melanoma and an area around it. The amount of skin that is removed and the degree of scarring relate to the size of the lesion or mole. Generally, these patients do not need adjuvant therapy such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy or radiation therapy.

Depending on the size of the melanoma, the local excision may be an in- or outpatient procedure, usually with local anesthesia. The area may require stitches, and recovery can last a few weeks. The severity of the scar depends on the size, depth and location of the melanoma.

Melanomas More Than One Millimeter Thick

Melanomas one millimeter or more in thickness are considered somewhat more serious than thin melanomas because they are more likely to spread to other areas of the body. For larger melanomas, in addition to a wide local excision, a surgeon will often do a lymph node biopsy to check whether the cancer cells have spread. In a lymph node biopsy, lymph nodes in the area of the cancer are surgically removed to see whether they contain cancer. Your surgeon may opt to do a sentinel lymph node biopsy, in which only the closest lymph node to the tumor is removed to check for cancer. If the lymph node closest to the tumor is cancer free, then the other lymph nodes do not need to be checked or removed.

Metastatic Melanoma (Stage IV)

At this stage, melanoma has spread into distant skin or lymph nodes or other organs such as the lungs, liver or brain. Surgeons do not usually operate to remove these metastases. Even if large metastases can be removed, there are very likely smaller ones in other places that would be missed. However, treatment may still be able to improve symptoms and extend life. A doctor may recommend system-wide chemotherapy or immunotherapy to improve a patient's quality of life.

Immunotherapy
 

A number of immunotherapy medications may be injected into the skin to treat skin cancers. The most commonly used is interferon-alpha. Interferon works by stimulating the body's immune response to destroy skin cancer tissue. The tumor progressively shrinks. The destruction is relatively specific, and healthy tissue is usually spared. Redness, inflammation and flu-like symptoms may occur as part of the immune system response. It may take a series of injections, spaced several months apart, to eradicate a larger skin cancer.

Interferon can also be used for people whose melanoma has spread beyond the original cancer site to one or more lymph nodes, in order to prevent or delay melanoma recurrences. In this case, it is given for a year to decrease the risk that melanoma will return. For the first four weeks, a high dose of interferon is administered intravenously five days a week; for the rest of the year, a lower dose is injected under the skin three days a week, usually by the patient.

Skin Grafts
 

If a large area of skin must be removed during surgery, a skin graft may be done to reduce scarring. In a skin graft, the surgeon first numbs and then removes a patch of healthy skin from another part of the body, such as the upper thigh, and then uses it to replace the skin that is removed to cover the wound from surgery. This is done at the same time as the skin cancer surgery. The surgeon first numbs and then removes a patch of healthy skin from another part of the body. The patch is then used to cover the area where skin cancer was removed. If you have a skin graft, you may have to take special care of the area until it heals.

Radiation Therapy
 

Radiation therapy may be used to treat all types of skin cancers. Radiation therapy uses high-energy photons (X-rays) to destroy tissue. It targets the tumor site as well as a surrounding margin of skin. Shields are custom made for each patient to protect as much of the non-targeted tissue as possible.

Radiation therapy can be adjusted to be superficial or deeply penetrating, which means it can treat a variety of tumors. Properly performed, radiation therapy can achieve high cure rates with little or no scarring. Patients who have multiple lesions in one region of skin may have radiation therapy instead of surgery. Radiation therapy may be combined with chemotherapy, in chemoradiation, for advanced tumors.

Managing Melanomas
 

Melanoma patients have a high risk of developing new melanomas. Some also are at risk of a recurrence of the original melanoma in nearby skin or in other parts of the body. The chance of recurrence is greater for patients whose melanoma was thick or had spread to nearby tissue than for patients with very thin melanomas. Family members of people with melanoma should also have regular checks for melanoma.

To increase the chance of detecting a new or recurrent melanoma as early as possible, patients should follow their doctor's schedule for regular checkups. Follow-up care for those who have a high risk of recurrence may include X-rays, blood tests and scans of the chest, liver, bones and brain.

It is especially important for patients who have dysplastic nevi (atypical moles) and a family history of melanoma to have frequent checkups. People with melanoma also should monitor their own skin carefully for changes.