Deadliest melanoma is more difficult to detect

Cancer researchers are saying now that the most dangerous form of melanoma is generally the most difficult to detect. Health Central reports that often these "thick" melanomas don't meet the standard "ABCD" criteria for a suspect mole (A for asymmetry; B for border irregularity; C for color change; and D for diameter change). So if you have moles you're worried about, seek professional medical advice. And if you're still not 100% confident about a negative diagnosis, get a second opinion. Doctor's have misdiagnosed melanoma cases before. Just because your doctor tells you you're healthy, doesn't mean you are.

Excerpts from Health Central:

Demierre believes the reason many of the thick, nodular melanomas are missed is that they don't fit the criteria that many people and their doctors have learned to recognize as skin cancer. People have been taught to identify skin cancer by using the ABCD criteria: A for asymmetry; B for border irregularity; C for color change; and D for diameter change.

"Really, a lot of melanomas present without any of the ABCD," Demierre said. "The moles become itchy, the changes are small, and those turn out to be the thicker melanoma, often the nodular melanoma," she added (study author Dr. Marie-France Demierre, director of the Skin Oncology Program at Boston University School of Medicine).

To deal with this problem, Demierre said that people need to be more aware of the changes in any mole.

"If you have a lesion that you are concerned about, you should have it checked," she advised.

"The bottom line is, if you have a lesion on your skin, and it's changing -- that is, it's getting larger, changing color, appears to be raising -- go see your doctor and get it checked. And you need to get there quickly, because this lesion grows fast," he stressed (Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society).