My dad has had a mole on his neck for years, 12 months ago we noticed it getting bigger but thought nothing of it. Fast forward to end of November last year it is bleeding/weeping so much he has to wear a plaster over it. He went to the GP and they referred him to have some medical photographs taken on 20th December.
We then receive a letter with an appointment to see a dermatologist for 12th Jan (today), this letter mentions that it could be a sign of cancer. I went with him today for the appointment and we were seen by a skin cancer specialist, she asked all about his medical history etc. long and short of that is that he spent years working outside on a farm with no sun protection at all and still to this day doesn't wear. The lady today looked very concerned about the size of the mole (15mmx12mm) and said it had to be removed today as she wasn't happy to leave it on whilst we await results if she were to do a biopsy instead. 20 minutes later the mole is removed and sent for testing.
I asked her as she sees this every day what is the likelihood of it being cancer, she said without test results she can't say 100% but that it does look like a nodular and vascular melanoma and she's very concerned about the growth rate as it's doubled in size over the last 3 weeks.
What experience does everyone have with melanoma?
My only experience with cancer is my mum, who was diagnosed in March 2022 with lung cancer and passed away in the August 2022.
Hi Legend1984 and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
I had a melanoma diagnosis 7 years ago. What would you like to know?
Anne
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
It was 6 weeks before I got my results back
Currently it seems to be between 3-8 weeks with the average being about 4 weeks. It mainly depends on how busy the pathology laboratories are in your area of the country.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
The thing to remember is that even if it is melanoma it's already been removed.
If it is melanoma your dad will have a wide local excision (WLE) which is basically the same as the excision biopsy but takes away a further margin just to make sure there were no cancer cells left behind.
Depending on the depth of the melanoma he may be offered a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) at the same time as the WLE. This is a diagnostic test to see if any melanoma cells have travelled to the first lymph node nearest the melanoma.
If everything is clear from the WLE and SLNB then that's his treatment finished.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
The SLNB is the check to see if it's spread. If you take a look at the NICE guidelines it tells you when a CT scan should be considered. However, until you know what Stage the melanoma is, assuming it is melanoma, then you won't know if a CT scan will be offered.
Try to focus on one stage at a time. At the moment you don't know if your dad's mole is a melanoma and even professionals are mistaken my appearance. As your dad's consultant quite rightly said, they can't be sure until the biopsy results are back. When I was diagnosed with melanoma my consultant didn't think the lesion was anything to worry about. I've since had a mole removed that the consultant thought might be another melanoma and it was just an atypical mole.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
