I Think I Have Melanoma: What Should I Do?

Melanoma is a skin cancer that may appear in an existing mole or as a new mark. Warning features include a mark that changes in size, shape, colour, or sensation, has an irregular outline, has several colours, or bleeds or crusts. Many unusual-looking marks are not melanoma, so avoid diagnosing yourself from a photograph or online description.

Arrange a skin assessment and note when you first noticed the change. Take a clear photograph for your own comparison, without delaying care. A clinician may examine the whole skin surface and recommend surgical excision or another form of skin cancer surgery. If melanoma is confirmed, staging can guide whether sentinel lymph node biopsy, tumour removal surgery, or immunotherapy is considered.

Contact a clinician promptly for a rapidly changing, bleeding, ulcerated, or persistently itchy or painful mark, especially if it is new. Seek urgent help for heavy bleeding that does not stop with firm pressure, or for severe illness alongside a skin change. Symptoms such as neurological problems require urgent evaluation; they do not establish that melanoma has spread to the brain.

What features make this mark worth testing? Will it need excision or a biopsy? How will the result affect staging? If melanoma is confirmed, which follow-up plan and treatment choices apply to me?