A 30-year-old member asked:

Can you please tell me how melanoma and malignant melanoma differ?

4 doctor answers12 doctors weighed in
Dr. Otto Placik
Surgery - Plastics 36 years experience
No difference: These are equivalent terms because there is no such thing as a benign melanoma!
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
Dr. Thomas Fiala
Plastic Surgery 35 years experience
Same thing: ...Just one is shorter to say. There's no such thing as a "benign melanoma", for example.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
Dr. Travis Kidner
Surgical Oncology 19 years experience
The same: Melanoma is be a malignant tumor. Sometimes people only refer to it as melanoma and other times as malignant melanoma. They are the same entity.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
Dr. Carlo Contreras
A Verified Doctoranswered
Surgical Oncology 20 years experience
Depth: Generally these terms are used interchangeably, but there is one exception. This is for melanoma in-situ which is very early stage and termed pre-invasive. If neglected melanoma in situ will grow and become malignant.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.

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Last updated Mar 1, 2021

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