Diagnosis timings help please

Hi Verity,

Sorry about the news.

I think follow up time varies for each hospital/city/region. Best to check with your nurse as they'll be able to give you most realistic waiting times for your NHS trust. They triage all cases according to the possible risk factors. 

You can see my detailed time line on my profile. Form suspicious mole (thought to be stage 1/2) removal, to having the results of WLE and SLNB it was about 8-9 weeks. I was followed at King's College and GSTT in London,later has one of the biggest melanoma clinic in the UK, so things might have moved slightly faster. 

It was difficult to wait as one wants things to be done immediately, but I did not experience massive delays due to covid. 

Hope this helps. 

Thank you so much, that is really helpful. I will definitely look at your timeline details also.

thank you again 

Verity 

I felt the process was very drawn out. I sent  pics to my gp in Feb, dermatologist removed it in March. 6 weeks later( 19th April )  the results came back as melanoma 2.5mm it was the 8th June before I had my wle and SLNB. Then another 4 weeks for results… then a 2 week wait for a ct scan… then I finally saw an oncologist 4 weeks later. I began my immunotherapy 11 days later x 

I feel like it was a marathon just to get to the point of seeing an oncologist. I am unsure if this was covid impacted or not no one has ever mentioned covid hold ups ? 

Thank you for sharing, I think the extended process is what I'm worried about... I'm glad you are finally on your treatment and that your CT was clear. Good luck x

Thank you, this is just my findings and in my opinion it’s far too drawn out. The waiting times were such a struggle for me .

2 doses in on immunotherapy and hoping all is well at my next ct scan. 

Abbababbabba, sorry to hear about your diagnosis.  I had my mole removed beginning of April after at least a year of being fobbed off from my GP. I had CT, MRI and a PET scans where they found a suspicious neck node and a brain aneurysm!  So have a CT guided needle aspiration (inconclusive) I finally had my op on July 16th. My surgeon was in a hurry to get the WLI and SLNB done as quickly as possible so I don't think the covid affected me but all the scans and waiting for everyone (cancer /skin and neuro ) to review them all. Am now same as Amccl with 2 treatments in.  Any waiting is hard I think but I just tried to get on with living. X

Thank you, that is very good advice. X

Abbbabbabba

Hi Verity and a very warm welcome to the online community

Firstly, until the results of the biopsy come back no one, not even the consultant, can say for certain that you have melanoma. Also it's impossible to know what Stage (phase) it will be as that's determined by the depth of the melanoma below the skin, known as the Breslow thickness, and unless your consultant has x-ray vision he/she can't possibly know that.

I have had two moles removed. The first one the consultant didn't think was anything to worry about, as it didn't have the characteristics of a melanotic mole, turned out to be melanoma and the second one, which had the characteristics, was just an abnormal mole. So, in other words, try not to think too far ahead at this stage. 

When you had the mole excised you should have been given an indication of how long results are currently taking to come back along with a phone number to call if they're not back within that timescale. If you weren't given this information then that's very naughty of the hospital.

My first mole biopsy took 6 weeks for the results to come back and the second one 3 weeks. Most people here get their results back on average within 4 weeks. It all depends on how busy the pathology laboratories are in your area of the country.

If it turns out to be melanoma then the follow-up treatment is called a wide local excision (WLE). This is to make sure that there are no cancer cells left in the surrounding skin. For most people this is the only further treatment they need.

The SLNB (sentinel lymph node biopsy) you mentioned will only be offered if your melanoma is more than a certain depth. It's important to understand that the SLNB isn't a treatment for melanoma but a test to see if the melanoma has spread to your lymph nodes.  

When I was diagnosed with melanoma 5 years ago it was about 10 weeks between finding out my diagnosis and having the WLE and SLNB. This was partly down to the fact that Christmas and New Year got in the way. However my SCNS (skin cancer nurse specialist) reassured me that the WLE was effectively a "mopping up exercise" as she could see that the surgeon had already got clear margins. Most people recently seem to be getting their WLEs within about 4-6 weeks. 

I've had both these procedures and will be happy to tell you more about what's involved if it turns out you have melanoma. However, I'll be keeping everything crossed that you don't. If you want to read more about my journey with melanoma then clicking on my profile picture or name will take you straight there.

x

Thank you, I will look at your profile as it is so much more helpful understand people's personal journeys rather than just reading general advice. I feel like I'm living on this forum at the moment.  I don't think a timeline was mentioned for results so I will phone and try and get a better idea from them. Thanks so much x

I find it's much easier to cope if I know what sort of timeframe is involved Abbbabbabba and hopefully the hospital should be able to give you an idea.

I'm glad you're finding this forum helpful but I'm keeping everything crossed that you won't have melanoma so won't need us much longer