Have you noticed a new freckle on your skin that wasn’t there before? Or maybe a mole has recently changed or grown. Perhaps your loved one pointed out a suspicious lesion which you hadn’t seen before, or maybe something just doesn’t feel right –
Some of our patients have had skin cancer for a long time. It might have started with a pre-cancerous sunspot on the scalp, then a basal cell carcinoma on the ear, and later a squamous cell carcinoma on the shoulder.
Did you know that skin cancer can run in the family? If you have a first-degree relative who has been diagnosed with melanoma in their lifetime, you have a 50 per cent greater chance of developing the disease yourself.
Melanoma is a form of skin cancer arising from abnormal, uncontrolled growth of cells known as melanocytes. Melanoma is particularly dangerous because - if not detected and treated early - it can spread to other organs of the body and become fatal.