Malignant melanoma.what happens next.

Hi , I’m sorry to hear you are having a blip at the moment. When I had my US guided biopsy the results took about 2 weeks to come back and then I had a discussion with an oncologist and a surgeon as to what to do next. My recurrence was in my groin and not my neck. I am not sure if yours is a lymph node that you’ve identified as your lump, and if so if the biopsy is positive if they will want to take that one node, or do a full dissection, or do no surgery and consider systemic treatment of either targeted therapy (if BRAF +ve) or immunotherapy. They should talk everything through with you after the biopsy results, I have sometimes had the discussion with an oncologist before an MDT and then when the oncologist and surgeon have got together they have sometimes come up with a different course of action.

Some hospitals do not do full neck dissection but they may refer you to somewhere that does, if you ask or if they think that’s a good way to go. I didn’t go to last year’s melanoma patient conference but watched the videos from it, which are on you tube, there was a talk about head and neck melanoma from Mr Roman Mykula, a plastic Surgeon, it has some patient photos which a few years back would have been squeamish for me to see, so I’m not sure if I should put the link in. 

You asked if you would require a stay in hospital, from that video I’d conclude yes if they do a full dissection, I’m not a medic and when faced with a choice I have to do some researching and ask questions sometimes through the specialist nurse to feel happy, umm not happy but satisfied with the way forward if a choice is presented or if there is conflicting advice along the way. I use a note book to get all the questions together and run through the Macmillan section on questions, which I’m going to link below in case it helps and it definitely can’t hurt. https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/treatment/your-treatment-options/questions-to-ask-your-healthcare-team You can also talk things through with the Macmillan help line as well.

I am not sure if we have anyone currently in the group who have had lymph nodes in the neck removed, I hope they comment if there is, you may also find some personal experience in the head and neck group. 

Best wishes