My husband’s situation

My Dad was first diagnosed at age 81.  Age does play a factor here.  However, you have a say in how aggressive or not aggressive you want them to be.  My Dad's docs at the VA were going to do everything according to standard protocol, but that didn't fit in with my Dad's wishes.  I had to go to bat for him to have them do what my Dad wanted.  Least treatment possible to get the most bang for the buck essentially.

First off, the lesions are unlikely to be related.  The pathology wouldn't have given a depth on the second one but said "metastatic disease" if that is what they thought.  Metastatic disease would be characterized differently in pathology.  As for the remaining pigmented area, the depth would not change as they generally try to get the most dense area in a biopsy.  But that isn't 100% and yes, it could be deeper if the margins were not clear.  (Get a copy of both pathology reports for your own records). 

My questions for you are similar to what I went through with my Dad.  If the SNB is positive, would your husband want to have the lymph node dissection?  With a lesion on the abdomen, this could drain to either/both groin areas or some abdominal areas or even the armpits.  Would your husband want to go through the surgery to remove nodes from the affected lymph node basin(s)?  This is major surgery and can have complication including swelling/lymphedema.  If he were to have the lymph node dissection, would he consider doing treatment at stage III?  Currently, Interferon is the only approved treatment.  It doesn't really affect overall survival and I know I wouldn't have put my Dad on it for anything.  It affects quality of life way too much.  There aren't a lot of other options.  At 84, he might not qualify for any clinical trials.  Age or other conditions can be disqualifying factors.  You'd have to look for those types of things.  For me, I looked at what treatments my Dad would qualify for if he had the surgery, what the surgery could mean for quality of life and then I worked backwards on what really made sense for my Dad. My Dad's lesion was much deeper (2.22mm) and he did the minimum he could in the way of treatment.  He recently passed away at age 89.  Maybe doing some more surgery or treatment might have extended things, maybe it would have made quality of life much worse for him.  There is no second guessing, you just decide what really makes the most sense to you – regardless of what the doctor's say.  This is HIS decision, no one elses.  If I can help at all, please let me know.  (Go to my profile and send me an email from there).

My Dad was first diagnosed at age 81.  Age does play a factor here.  However, you have a say in how aggressive or not aggressive you want them to be.  My Dad's docs at the VA were going to do everything according to standard protocol, but that didn't fit in with my Dad's wishes.  I had to go to bat for him to have them do what my Dad wanted.  Least treatment possible to get the most bang for the buck essentially.

First off, the lesions are unlikely to be related.  The pathology wouldn't have given a depth on the second one but said "metastatic disease" if that is what they thought.  Metastatic disease would be characterized differently in pathology.  As for the remaining pigmented area, the depth would not change as they generally try to get the most dense area in a biopsy.  But that isn't 100% and yes, it could be deeper if the margins were not clear.  (Get a copy of both pathology reports for your own records). 

My questions for you are similar to what I went through with my Dad.  If the SNB is positive, would your husband want to have the lymph node dissection?  With a lesion on the abdomen, this could drain to either/both groin areas or some abdominal areas or even the armpits.  Would your husband want to go through the surgery to remove nodes from the affected lymph node basin(s)?  This is major surgery and can have complication including swelling/lymphedema.  If he were to have the lymph node dissection, would he consider doing treatment at stage III?  Currently, Interferon is the only approved treatment.  It doesn't really affect overall survival and I know I wouldn't have put my Dad on it for anything.  It affects quality of life way too much.  There aren't a lot of other options.  At 84, he might not qualify for any clinical trials.  Age or other conditions can be disqualifying factors.  You'd have to look for those types of things.  For me, I looked at what treatments my Dad would qualify for if he had the surgery, what the surgery could mean for quality of life and then I worked backwards on what really made sense for my Dad. My Dad's lesion was much deeper (2.22mm) and he did the minimum he could in the way of treatment.  He recently passed away at age 89.  Maybe doing some more surgery or treatment might have extended things, maybe it would have made quality of life much worse for him.  There is no second guessing, you just decide what really makes the most sense to you – regardless of what the doctor's say.  This is HIS decision, no one elses.  If I can help at all, please let me know.  (Go to my profile and send me an email from there).

My Dad was first diagnosed at age 81.  Age does play a factor here.  However, you have a say in how aggressive or not aggressive you want them to be.  My Dad's docs at the VA were going to do everything according to standard protocol, but that didn't fit in with my Dad's wishes.  I had to go to bat for him to have them do what my Dad wanted.  Least treatment possible to get the most bang for the buck essentially.

First off, the lesions are unlikely to be related.  The pathology wouldn't have given a depth on the second one but said "metastatic disease" if that is what they thought.  Metastatic disease would be characterized differently in pathology.  As for the remaining pigmented area, the depth would not change as they generally try to get the most dense area in a biopsy.  But that isn't 100% and yes, it could be deeper if the margins were not clear.  (Get a copy of both pathology reports for your own records). 

My questions for you are similar to what I went through with my Dad.  If the SNB is positive, would your husband want to have the lymph node dissection?  With a lesion on the abdomen, this could drain to either/both groin areas or some abdominal areas or even the armpits.  Would your husband want to go through the surgery to remove nodes from the affected lymph node basin(s)?  This is major surgery and can have complication including swelling/lymphedema.  If he were to have the lymph node dissection, would he consider doing treatment at stage III?  Currently, Interferon is the only approved treatment.  It doesn't really affect overall survival and I know I wouldn't have put my Dad on it for anything.  It affects quality of life way too much.  There aren't a lot of other options.  At 84, he might not qualify for any clinical trials.  Age or other conditions can be disqualifying factors.  You'd have to look for those types of things.  For me, I looked at what treatments my Dad would qualify for if he had the surgery, what the surgery could mean for quality of life and then I worked backwards on what really made sense for my Dad. My Dad's lesion was much deeper (2.22mm) and he did the minimum he could in the way of treatment.  He recently passed away at age 89.  Maybe doing some more surgery or treatment might have extended things, maybe it would have made quality of life much worse for him.  There is no second guessing, you just decide what really makes the most sense to you – regardless of what the doctor's say.  This is HIS decision, no one elses.  If I can help at all, please let me know.  (Go to my profile and send me an email from there).