› Forums › Cutaneous Melanoma Community › Moderate Atypical Mole
- This topic has 4 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 5 months ago by
garnerkaraoke81.
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- June 16, 2016 at 7:28 pm
I got a skin check shortly after finding out my grandma had two spots of carcinoma removed. I use a tanning bed regularly, so after her scare, I decided to be checked as well.
At my appointment the dermatologist removed one mole that I hadn't noticed any changes in, I've had it my entire life, but she had pointed out that it was pink around the edges. I believe she did a punch – kind of leaving a small hole in my shoulder. Two weeks out it's still not healing well – the scab keeps falling off, I think because of it being a little deep. Anyways, not the point.
They called me a week later telling me that it came back as moderately atypical, and that the cells are changing, not melanoma yet, but starting to form it? I'm not sure how that was worded, or how well that makes sense.
I now have an appointment on July 6 to see their plastic surgeon to remove the skin around the mole and send it back in for biopsy. Of course, hearing this is kind of frightening not knowing much about melanoma, how quickly this spot could change into melanoma, if it even could, and what my chances of finding out that it could be melanoma after the biopsy could be. I know I'm all over the place here, it's hard to word all of this when I'm not familiar with the medical field to begin with.
I am just curious what to expect at this point.
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- June 16, 2016 at 8:33 pm
If you've had this mole for years and it hasn't changed, then this wasn't turning into melanoma. Yes, it has POTENTIAL to turn, but you would have noticed changes on the surface. Some docs call this pre-cancerous but that is a misnomer. Precancerous implies that if left untreated, it will turn into melanoma and that is not the case. This lesion could have stayed moderately atypical through the end of your life and never turn into melanoma. In fact, that is the case with almost all moles.
Just have the margins taken – that is totally precautionary only. You will continue to need to see a dermatologist though, as you are likely to develop other skin cancers that are directly related to tanning bed and sun exposure use. Basal Cell carcinoma and Squamous Cell Carcinoma are both byproducts of sun and tanning bed exposure. WATCH YOUR SKIN FOR ANY CHANGES and report those to your derm.
As for your biopsy, it was probably a scoop shave. A punch would most likely have had a stitch or two to close it. I think shave biopsies heal slower and more painfully than any punch biopsy and for many reasons, won't allow shave biopsies anymore.
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- November 26, 2019 at 6:15 pm
Last Monday November 18th, I went in to my girlfriends work, she was concerned about a mole in the middle of my back. She works at KMC here in Kansas. The doctor did a full body scan, did a shaving of the mole on my back. I got the results back the following Friday and it was a benign moderate atypical mole. Today I went in and did further operation and they removed the rest of it. Sending it off for results. Hoping the removed everything, going back in 2 weeks to get stitches removed.
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- June 16, 2016 at 8:33 pm
If you've had this mole for years and it hasn't changed, then this wasn't turning into melanoma. Yes, it has POTENTIAL to turn, but you would have noticed changes on the surface. Some docs call this pre-cancerous but that is a misnomer. Precancerous implies that if left untreated, it will turn into melanoma and that is not the case. This lesion could have stayed moderately atypical through the end of your life and never turn into melanoma. In fact, that is the case with almost all moles.
Just have the margins taken – that is totally precautionary only. You will continue to need to see a dermatologist though, as you are likely to develop other skin cancers that are directly related to tanning bed and sun exposure use. Basal Cell carcinoma and Squamous Cell Carcinoma are both byproducts of sun and tanning bed exposure. WATCH YOUR SKIN FOR ANY CHANGES and report those to your derm.
As for your biopsy, it was probably a scoop shave. A punch would most likely have had a stitch or two to close it. I think shave biopsies heal slower and more painfully than any punch biopsy and for many reasons, won't allow shave biopsies anymore.
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- June 16, 2016 at 8:33 pm
If you've had this mole for years and it hasn't changed, then this wasn't turning into melanoma. Yes, it has POTENTIAL to turn, but you would have noticed changes on the surface. Some docs call this pre-cancerous but that is a misnomer. Precancerous implies that if left untreated, it will turn into melanoma and that is not the case. This lesion could have stayed moderately atypical through the end of your life and never turn into melanoma. In fact, that is the case with almost all moles.
Just have the margins taken – that is totally precautionary only. You will continue to need to see a dermatologist though, as you are likely to develop other skin cancers that are directly related to tanning bed and sun exposure use. Basal Cell carcinoma and Squamous Cell Carcinoma are both byproducts of sun and tanning bed exposure. WATCH YOUR SKIN FOR ANY CHANGES and report those to your derm.
As for your biopsy, it was probably a scoop shave. A punch would most likely have had a stitch or two to close it. I think shave biopsies heal slower and more painfully than any punch biopsy and for many reasons, won't allow shave biopsies anymore.
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