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Melanoma Treatment and High-Risk Factors

As with any forms of cancer, detection and treatment at the earliest imply higher success rates. It is important, thus, to identify and treat melanoma as early as possible. Being informed and regular medical checks (especially on existing skin conditions for high-risk individuals) are essential.

Melanoma treatment consists in surgically removal of melanoma cells followed by analysis of the removed cells. The key is to remove the very last affected cell. Thus, usually the removal is done very thoroughly, eliminating the cells (which may look normal) around affected areas in order to make sure that every single melanoma cell is eliminated. Sometimes this is done in two phases, since a thorough cell removal is needed only for confirmed melanoma cases (after the main affected cells were removed and tested confirming melanoma presence). After treatment, regular checks are recommended for some time in order to make sure that there were no malignant cells left and no subsequent further developments or new developments.

Melanoma patients should never assume that if the melanoma treatment was successful their risk has passed. In fact, melanoma risk remains throughout their lives and they should pay increased attention to minimize any sun exposure, wear protective sunscreen and clothing while outside (even while driving and under partial cloudy conditions) and go for regular medical checks, as well as carefully scrutinizing themselves their skin for any new lesions or irregular moles or nodules.

Individuals with High Risk for Developing Melanoma

High-risk individuals – more sensitive and prone to develop some type of melanoma - include:

  • Outdoor workers – including any type of outdoor activity, especially the agricultural workers, farmers, construction workers, road workers, outdoor patrols, gardeners and other professions involving prolonged outside activities;
  • Sensitive individuals – such as those with fair sun-sensitive skin (especially red or blonde-hair people) and/or many freckles, people with many moles (100 or more) or atypical moles (5 or more), as well as those with a increased genetic risk (please see more here);
  • People who experienced blistering sunburn at young ages, especially repeated events over short period of time;
  • People who had prolonged and unprotected sun exposure during childhood years especially;
  • Older people (60 years or more) – mainly due to skin aging processes, which makes the skin cells more sensitive to sunlight and more prone to develop moles and/or lesions which may eventually result in melanoma or other types of skin cancers.

Please note that people exposed to contamination (especially materials containing PAHs) may also be at high-risk for developing skin cancers and potentially melanoma type, too.

Note: Although, as shown above, some individuals are more sensitive and more at risk to develop melanoma than others, good preventive measures against melanoma cancer are generally easy to apply and should be applied by anyone of us.