How Tell If You Have Skin Cancer

Symptoms - Skin cancer (melanoma)

The first sign of a melanoma is often a new mole or a change in the advent of an existing mole.

Normal moles are generally round or oval, with a polish edge, and usually no bigger than 6mm in diameter.

Just size is not a sure sign of melanoma. A healthy mole tin can be larger than 6mm in diameter, and a cancerous mole can exist smaller than this.

See a GP as soon as possible if you lot detect changes in a mole, freckle or patch of skin, especially if the changes happen over a few weeks or months.

Picture of a melanoma — Motion-picture show of a melanoma

Signs to look out for include a mole that'southward:

getting bigger
irresolute shape
changing colour
bleeding or becoming crusty
itchy or sore

The ABCDE checklist should help you tell the difference between a normal mole and a melanoma:

Asymmetrical – melanomas usually accept 2 very different halves and are an irregular shape
Edge – melanomas unremarkably accept a notched or ragged border
Colours – melanomas will usually exist a mix of 2 or more colours
Diameter – nigh melanomas are usually larger than 6mm in diameter
Enlargement or summit – a mole that changes size over time is more than likely to exist a melanoma

Melanoma tin can appear anywhere on your body, but they most normally announced on the back in men and on the legs in women.

It tin can likewise develop underneath a nail, on the sole of the foot, in the mouth or in the genital surface area, but these types of melanoma are rare.

Melanoma of the eye

In rare cases, melanoma tin can develop in the centre. Information technology develops from pigment-producing cells called melanocytes.

Eye melanoma usually affects the eyeball. The nigh common type is uveal or choroidal melanoma, which grows at the back of the eye.

Very rarely, it can grow on the thin layer of tissue that covers the front end of the eye (the conjunctiva) or in the coloured role of the eye (the iris).

Noticing a dark spot or changes in vision can exist signs of middle melanoma, although it'southward more likely to exist diagnosed during a routine eye examination.

Read more than virtually melanoma of the centre on our page about heart cancers.

Folio final reviewed: 07 February 2020
Next review due: 07 February 2023