Malignant melanoma is the most aggressive type of cancer in general, and the actual chance for healing is early diagnosis, any melanoma diagnosed from onset is healed by correct and complete surgical excision.
Unfortunately, advanced malignant melanomas have little chance of survival even with modern, targeted oncology therapies, and prevention is still the key to success in this type of cancer.
When it comes to this condition, there is a family-transmitted genetic predisposition and the presence of a large number of associated melanocytic lesions (over 100 melanocytic nevi increases the risk by 7 times or more than 50 atypical nevi increases the risk by 6.4 times).
Type II skin light phototype skin that frequently suffers from burning is also an important predisposing factor.
Extensive and intermittent burn-on exposure increases the risk of malignant melanoma, and chronic cumulative exposure in years increases the risk of epithelioma.
Other external factors such as carcinogenic substances, chemical burns, pre-existing lesions (such as the presence of melanocytes-moles) for melanoma, etc. are described.
Most often, melanoma is a dark brown skin lesion, in 80% of cases occurred de novo on the skin of patients with oncological risk, the evolution being from a few mm, experiencing changes in contour, color, shape, dimensions. In the 20% of cases it develops from already existing injuries suffering the same described transformations.
Any new lesion, especially brown, blackish-brown, or the alteration of the lesions already existing on our skin, in the sense of increasing the size, contour, shape or color changes, are alarm signals and require prompt dermatoscopic investigation and initiation of the right therapy.
Thus, the subjective control, personal, with the visualization and marking of these incipient changes, as well as general dermatoscopic control using modern imaging methods, videodermatoscopy, continue to be extremely important in the diagnosis of this very aggressive tumor type.
As already specified, the risk of melanoma occurrence from a pre-existing mole is20% (1 of 5 melanomas developed on preexisting moles).
The correct attitude to excision is to treat surgically only malignant lesions; suspected lesions are monitored for a short term, because activity changes are rapidly observable when the lesion is a melanoma and its increase is extremely slow and maintained within safe limits.
Full body image monitoring and punctual dermatoscopic recording for some of the injuries are the right attitude.
The skin must not be overexposed to the sun, nor must it suffer any sunburn.
But, more importantly, is to closely supervise these lesions, personally and subjectively, by the inspection of the entire cutanous surface for any new lesions or for recording any form, size, contour, surface or color changes occurred on pre-existing lesions.
Any newly occurred lesion or any change of a pre-existing lesion require for a visit to the dermatologist specialist who has to dermatoscopically analyze the lesion for a clear diagnosis or for establishing a treatment procedure.
