Good afternoon community
My wife has been waiting almost 8 weeks for results from a mole removal. We’d not heard anything in this time but after she emailed the clinic yesterday to chase up she got an email letter back for an appointment in 2 weeks time.
Obviously this immediately triggers anxiety that something is wrong, and she has this morning had an appointment for something else and asked the doctor there. They shouldn’t have shown her but they did see a letter confirming the mole to be a malignant melanoma but he couldn’t say anything else due to his lack of understanding, and he did apologise massively. That aside as it’s not the problem here, my wife did see on the letter something about the mole being Clark level 4 and within a 1.6cm or 1.6mm margin. Does anybody know what this means please? I know it’s not related to stage but don’t know how much we should be worried.
She has asked for somebody at the clinic to please call her but we haven’t heard anything yet. We just want to know how urgent this could be as we are obviously scared, and also is a 2 week wait for a follow up appointment normal after a near 8 week wait for results? Would she be rushed in sooner if it was advanced?
Thanks for any help and advice here.
Hi Jonathan1981
Sorry it's taken me a while longer to reply than I suggested when I responded to your post in New to the Community.
That's a real pity that your wife's GP told her the results of her recent biopsy especially when they then admitted that they didn't know what the results meant. It was very unprofessional, to say the least. That is the reason why consultant's secretaries, when rung to see if the results are back yet, are not allowed to give them out because they're not in a position to explain what they mean to the patient.
Clark level 4 and within a 1.6cm or 1.6mm margin.
It's natural to want to know what the above results mean, but as none of us are medically qualified it would be wrong of any of us to try and predict what it means especially as your wife isn't entirely sure if it was 1.6mm or 1.6cm.
The staging of melanoma comes in two parts. Firstly there's the pathological stage, which is where your wife is now. The Clark level is an indication of depth and this will be used to come up with a pathological stage. She will receive a staging of either Tis, T1, T2, T3 or T4.
Once she's had further tests (if necessary) and the normal wide local excision (WLE) and possible sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) she will be given a final staging, eg Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3 or Stage 4.
If you want to read more about staging, this information from Macmillan should help, although it doesn't mention the Clark Level as a way of measuring the depth of the melanoma. Your wife's consultant should give her all the necessary information relating to the stage she is.
I would say that a 10 week wait from biopsy to receiving the results is a long time but not uncommon these days. I had to wait 6 weeks for my results 8 years ago and the normal wait time now seems to be anywhere between 4 to 8 weeks.
When the results are reported back to the hospital by the pathology laboratories your wife's case will then be discussed at a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting where it will be decided what treatment she will need. These meetings are usually held once a week and will happen/have happened between when the letter from the pathology laboratory was received and when your wife's appointment has been scheduled.
I know I haven't been able to answer your question as to what your wife's stage is, but I hope I've been able to explain the process and not confused you too much!
Anne
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
