What is skin melanoma?

skin melanoma, more often known simply as melanoma, is cancer of skin cells called melanocytes. These are cells producing pigment placed mainly in the skin, with a small number of melanocytes also present in the ears, eyes, gastrointestinal tract and mucous membranes. Skin melanoma is the cause of most skin cancer death, but can be treated effectively if diagnosed before cancer expands from the point of origin. The most effective ways of fighting melanoma are preventive measures to avoid long -term exposure to the sun, burning and heavy sunbathing and using sunscreen and protective clothing when outside. The changes that may occur are defined by the ABCDE criteria. The first three criteria are asymmetry, where two half of the lesion do not match; the irregularity of the boundaries where the edges of the lesion are ragged than smooth; And the colored variegatine where the pigmentation of the lesion is not the same on its entire surface. The fourth criterion is the average, which concerns the fact that most skin lesions of melanoma haveDiameter of more than about a quarter of inches (6 mm). The fifth criterion develops, which means that the appearance of malignant melanoma lesions has changed over time.

There are several risk factors of skin melanoma. People with pale skin, righteous hair, light -colored eyes, or tendencies to pira in the sun have an increased risk of skin cancer. The risk further increases if there is a family history of melanoma. The role of exposure to the sun in the development of melanoma is not fully understood, but it is known that the heavy solar sun in childhood is a risk factor, especially if it suffers one or more blistering. It is assumed that the tight use of the melanoma saltrisk increases.

The primary treatment of skin melanoma is surgical removal of malignant skin lesion. Where skin lesions are superficial, it can often be performed as an outpatient procedure for a clinic or hospital. Until cancer does not spread from the soil pointWater, surgical removal to cure the disease. However, if the lesion of melanoma is more than 0.4 inches (1 mm), there is a possibility that cancer could spread to the nearest lymph node. In such cases, a biopsy is performed to see if this has happened.

Unfortunately, when cancer spreads from the initial lesion into one or more lymph nodes, there is another treatment such as chemotherapy, rarely successful. Metastatic melanoma is fatal for most people, with a five -year survival rate of less than 20 percent. Treatment of immune cytokines such as interferon alpha and interleukin-2 have proven to be successful in some patients, but it was successful, but Aleprognosis remains poor for people with metastatic melanoma.