Skin Cancer

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I’ve had 2 consultations regarding a suspicious mole on my breast, I am now booked in to have it taken off and be sent off for a biopsy.

i am so worried as the consultant said it doesn’t look good. Does anyone have any stories of melanoma cancer?

Thankyou

I know someone who had melanoma, mole on chest two rounds of surgery no further treatment. Hope goes well for youc take care.

Thankyou for your message

I’ve had some melanomas in situ removed. Chopped out, wide area biopsy and that was it. Why have you had two consultations? Why didn’t they remove it at the first one? I also had a doctor saying he didn’t like the look of one mole, that was completely fine, and another where I insisted on it being removed, he said it was fine, and it turned out to be melanoma. So they can’t tell until they have removed it and done a biopsy.

I had a private derm look at it then referred to GP and then consultation and now removal and biopsy feels like a longer process for something that’s meant to be a 2 week urgent.

Two weeks is misleading. It’s two weeks from referral to first consultation.

31 days to diagnosis and then 62 to a treatment plan if it turns out to be cancer.

Your NHS pathway didn’t start until your GP sent you to the hospital.

I recently had a mole removed after having it looked at by a doctor, and then having medical photographs reviewed by a consultant. I was geared up for it being melanoma, especially as I had noticed changes and I would occasionally get a bit of soreness in that area. In the end it was benign. My advice would be to take it seriously and get it removed, but also try not to get too ahead of yourself. It's still more likely to not be cancer than it is likely to be cancer. If it does turn out to be melanoma, then it's still very treatable. I hope it all goes well. x

Thankyou, out of interest has anyone above used sunbeds. I used too but would obvs avoid them now

Does anyone have an phots of their melanoma that they would be happy to share

A year ago I had a Mole removed because they were suspicious it might be cancer. Turned out to be a superficial spreading malignant melanoma grades at stage 1b. I had a further wide local excision and was supposed to have the sentinel lymph node biopsy but they couldn’t identify the node so instead I have 6 monthly lymph node scans at the same time as my skin check. A year on things are looking clear. I get nervous before the checks but so far it’s all good

I don’t, but my first one looked nothing like the photos that you see. It looked like a large freckle. The second one was more typical.

I had a melanoma, two biopsies and no more treatment, ive never used sunbeds but I used to live in a hot country

Had melanoma on thigh
Biopsy
Wide Area Incision
No further treatment

I hope this is reassuring: my husband - a fair skinned blue eyed ginger who spent his childhood in the tropics - had a couple of melanomas removed in this thirties and has had about three more since.

He will be 80 soon.

You are doing the right thing. Assuming you’ve been referred, things should move quite quickly now. I was seen in hospital 5 days after my 2 week referral was sent. I had the biopsy 2 weeks after that.

Mine unfortunately was melanoma (stage 3c, it had spread to a nearby lymph node). I’d already seen the GP 7 months earlier to be told it was ‘nothing’.

I will not lie, it has been a rocky road. I am 2 years in from diagnosis almost now and currently on a second round of treatment that will last another 2 years. The treatment is intense, but it has improved dramatically in recent years. One thing I would say is not to start googling statistics and panicking yourself. One, you don’t know what you’re dealing with and there’s no reason to panic about nothing. But secondly, the treatments are so much better now than even 5 years ago. The statistics do not reflect this.

Fwiw, I’ve never used a sun bed in my life. I’ve never been on a beach holiday and spent a week lying in the sun. What sun damage I had came from childhood as I’m one of those people who sits in the shade with a sun hat slathered in SPF 50. I don’t drink. Never smoked. So the joke is on me that I’ve wound up with skin cancer!

Hope you get some answers soon. Do push for your biopsy results. Chase them if you don’t hear back in 4 weeks or so. Any new symptoms, make yourself annoying and report them to dermatology.

Thankyou everyone for your messages back I do find comfort in hearing other stories

Mine is hereditary. My gran, two uncles, aunt and cousin died from it. My Mum had stage 3, but died from something else. Two more of my cousins have had it as well.

The reason for so many deaths in my family is that the melanomas didn’t look typical and were missed by the GP. Instead of being dark, they were mostly white or looked like a freckle, or scar tissue. There’s a note on my file to reflect this.

Using a sunbed before 35 increases the risk of malignant melanoma by up to 75%