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Melanoma Institute
About melanoma

Check your skin

About half of melanomas are first noticed by patients themselves. A 10-minute check once a month is enough to learn your own skin and spot what changes.

What to look for

Dermatologists teach the ABCDEs: asymmetry, an irregular border, more than one color, a diameter larger than 6 millimeters, and evolving, meaning any change in size, shape, or color.1 A spot that looks different from all your other moles deserves the same attention. So does a firm bump that keeps growing, even if it is pink.

How to do it

  1. Stand at a full-length mirror. Look at your front and back, then each side with your arms raised.
  2. Bend your elbows and check your forearms, underarms, palms, and fingernails.
  3. Look at the backs of your legs, your feet, the spaces between your toes, your toenails, and your soles.
  4. Use a hand mirror for the back of your neck and your scalp. Part your hair as you go.
  5. Finish with your back and buttocks, using the hand mirror.2

Take photos of any spot you want to watch, with a ruler in the frame, and compare them next month.

When to call a dermatologist

  • A spot that is new, changing, or different from your others
  • A spot that itches, hurts, or bleeds without an injury
  • A sore that has not healed in about 4 weeks
  • A fast-growing bump of any color
  • A new dark band under a fingernail or toenail

Do you need a doctor's skin exam?

In April 2023 the US Preventive Services Task Force concluded that evidence is insufficient to recommend for or against routine skin exams in adults with no symptoms and no personal or family history of skin cancer.3 That statement does not apply to people at higher risk. If you have had skin cancer, have a close relative with melanoma, have many or atypical moles, or take immune-suppressing medicine, regular exams with a dermatologist make sense.

Use the interactive ABCDE guide and self-exam checklistOpen the tool

The full-body skin exam

How to prepare and what the dermatologist checks.

Melanomas that break the rules

Fast-growing and pink melanomas the ABCDEs can miss.

Palms, soles, and nails

The places people forget to check.

References

  1. American Academy of Dermatology. What to look for: ABCDEs of melanoma. https://www.aad.org/public/diseases/skin-cancer/find/at-risk/abcdes
  2. American Academy of Dermatology. How to check your skin. https://www.aad.org/public/diseases/skin-cancer/find/check-skin
  3. US Preventive Services Task Force. Skin cancer: screening. Final recommendation statement, April 18, 2023. https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/skin-cancer-screening

Reviewed against these sources in September 2026. Figures change every year, and this page is updated when new estimates are released.

The information provided on this website is not intended to serve as a replacement for the advice, diagnosis, or treatment provided by a qualified medical professional. If you have any questions about a medical condition, you should never hesitate to consult with either your primary care physician or another qualified healthcare provider. You should never disregard the advice of a qualified medical professional or put off getting treatment because of something you have read on this website.
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