Question 1

what is melanoma?

Accepted Answer

Skin cancer: Which arises from melanocytes, which are the cells in the skin which give it color.  For this reason, melanomas are often dark colored on the skin (but some are not). Search on the abcd's of melanoma to learn how to spot a melanoma (or see the image).  Melanomas are dangerous because even a small cancer can metastasize.  However, caught early enough, they are curable.

Question 2

is melanoma transmissible?

Accepted Answer

No: Cancer is not a contagious disease.

Question 3

what exactly is a melanoma?

Accepted Answer

Cancer of skin: Melanoma is the worst form of the three common type of skin cancers.  These arise due to genetic susceptibility and sun exposure.  Generally the lesions are pigmented, but not always.  If a mole changes color, becomes bigger, or bleeds it should be checked out.  For more info go to this site. Asap.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/pmh0001853/.

Question 4

is melanoma hereditary? how?

Accepted Answer

Melanoma: I know of no genetic predisposition to melanoma. But behavioral link sun damage.

Question 5

who is at risk for melanoma?

Accepted Answer

White people in sun: Sun damage can lead to melanoma and people with fair skin sustain more injury from the sun more rapidly than their darker skinned counterparts.  Sun protection from a young age is very important.  You can read more at www.Melanomafoundation.Org.

Question 6

how do you diagnose melanoma?

Accepted Answer

Biopsy: Any suspicious looking skin lesion, esp if it grows fast or changes in color or starts bleeing, needs to be biopsied. It will reveal melanoma if present.

Question 7

can melanoma pop up suddenly?

Accepted Answer

Yes: Any change whether it be size or color or texture of a pigmented skin lesion is suspect for melanoma. You should get anything that changes checked even if it is something that changed suddenly.

Question 8

how often is melanoma 1-2 mm?

Accepted Answer

Quite common: Most melanomas in the US are diagnosed when they have thickness of  1mm to 3mm) are diagnosed in about 30% of patients and carry an intermediate prognosis with a risk of recurrence between 15-30%.

Question 9

can melanoma show up overnite?

Accepted Answer

No takes years: Melanoma dies not appear overnight.

Question 10

how does a person get melanoma?

Accepted Answer

Sun and gene: Uv light (heavy-exposures) and genetics (family history of melanoma, oncogene-carriers) are the two biggest reasons.
But there are many unknown factors waiting to be discovered.

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