67 terms you may hear in the exam room or read on a pathology report, in plain language.
A memory aid for melanoma warning signs: asymmetry, border, color, diameter, and evolving.
Read more →A type of melanoma that grows on the palms, the soles, or under the nails. It is the most common type in people with darker skin.
Read more →A rough, scaly spot caused by years of sun exposure. It is a precancer, and a small share turn into squamous cell carcinoma.
Read more →Treatment given after surgery to lower the chance that the cancer comes back.
Read more →A melanoma with little or no pigment. It looks pink, red, or skin colored instead of brown or black.
Read more →A benign mole that looks unusual to the eye or under the microscope. Also called a dysplastic nevus. Having several signals a higher lifetime risk of melanoma.
Read more →The most common skin cancer. It grows slowly and almost never spreads, but it can damage nearby tissue if left alone.
Read more →Not cancer. A benign growth does not invade nearby tissue or spread.
Removal of a piece of tissue so a pathologist can examine it under a microscope. It is the only way to confirm skin cancer.
Read more →A change in the BRAF gene found in about half of skin melanomas. Tumors that carry it can be treated with BRAF and MEK inhibitor pills.
Read more →The thickness of a melanoma in millimeters, measured by a pathologist under the microscope. It is one of the strongest predictors of outcome for early melanoma.
Read more →A sunscreen label that means the product protects against both UVA and UVB rays.
Read more →An immunotherapy drug that blocks a natural brake on immune cells so they can attack cancer. Examples are pembrolizumab, nivolumab, and ipilimumab.
Read more →An older way of describing how deep a melanoma has grown, using the layers of the skin. Breslow depth has replaced it in staging.
Read more →A research study that tests a treatment in people under a written plan called a protocol.
Read more →Surgery to remove the remaining lymph nodes in an area after cancer is found in a sentinel node. It is done far less often since the MSLT-II trial.
Read more →Freezing a growth with liquid nitrogen. Dermatologists use it most for actinic keratoses.
Read more →Scraping away a small skin cancer with a sharp ring-shaped tool, then treating the base with an electric needle.
Read more →A physician, trained in dermatology or pathology, with extra fellowship training in diagnosing skin disease under the microscope. This doctor writes the biopsy report.
Read more →The thicker layer of skin under the epidermis. It holds blood vessels, lymph vessels, nerves, and hair follicles.
Examination of a skin spot with a dermatoscope, a handheld magnifier with a polarized or immersion light.
Read more →The thin top layer of the skin. Basal cells, squamous cells, and melanocytes all live here.
Cutting out a growth along with a margin of normal skin, then closing the wound with stitches.
Read more →A pill, vismodegib or sonidegib, that blocks the growth signal driving advanced basal cell carcinoma.
Read more →Latin for in place. Cancer cells are confined to the top layer of the skin and have not grown deeper.
Read more →Melanoma deposits in the skin or lymph channels between the original tumor and the nearest lymph nodes.
Read more →Cancer that has grown past the layer where it started into deeper tissue.
A slow-growing melanoma in situ on sun-damaged skin, usually on the face of an older adult.
Read more →A small bean-shaped organ that filters lymph fluid. Melanoma cells that leave the skin usually travel to the nearest lymph nodes first.
Read more →Swelling of an arm or leg caused by a buildup of lymph fluid, sometimes after lymph node surgery.
Read more →Cancerous. A malignant tumor can invade nearby tissue and may spread.
The rim of normal-looking tissue removed around a tumor. A clear or negative margin means no cancer cells were seen at the cut edge.
Read more →A targeted drug paired with a BRAF inhibitor to treat melanomas that carry a BRAF mutation.
Read more →The cell that makes melanin, the pigment in skin, hair, and eyes. Melanoma starts in melanocytes.
Read more →A cancer of melanocytes. It is the skin cancer most likely to spread and is usually curable when found early.
Read more →A rare, fast-growing skin cancer that usually appears as a firm, painless, red or purple bump on sun-exposed skin.
Read more →Tiny deposits of melanoma near the main tumor that can be seen only under the microscope. Finding them raises the stage to III.
Read more →The number of dividing cells a pathologist counts per square millimeter of tumor. A higher count points to faster growth.
Read more →Surgery that removes a skin cancer one thin layer at a time, checking each layer under a microscope until no cancer remains.
Read more →Melanoma that starts in the moist lining of the nose, mouth, anus, or genitals. It is rare and unrelated to sun exposure.
Read more →Treatment given before surgery, often to shrink the tumor and prime the immune system.
Read more →A melanoma that grows downward early. It often appears as a firm, raised bump that keeps growing.
Read more →A physician who treats cancer. Medical oncologists give drug treatment, surgical oncologists operate, and radiation oncologists give radiation.
The written result of a biopsy or surgery, prepared by a pathologist. It states the diagnosis and the findings that guide treatment.
Read more →Cancer cells tracking along a nerve. It raises the risk of recurrence and can change the treatment plan.
Read more →Treatment that pairs a light-sensitizing drug with a light source to destroy precancerous cells.
Read more →The expected course of a disease, usually expressed as the chance of recurrence or survival for a group of similar patients.
Cancer that comes back after treatment, at the original site, in nearby lymph nodes, or in a distant organ.
Read more →A procedure that finds and removes the first lymph node draining the area of a melanoma so a pathologist can check it for cancer cells.
Read more →Sun protection factor. It measures how well a sunscreen protects against UVB, the rays that cause most sunburn. SPF 30 filters about 97% of UVB.
Read more →The second most common skin cancer. Most are cured with a simple procedure, and a small share spread.
Read more →A label from 0 to IV that describes how far a cancer has grown or spread at diagnosis. Stage guides treatment.
Read more →The most common type of melanoma. It tends to spread across the skin surface before growing deeper.
Read more →Drugs that block a specific molecule the cancer depends on, such as a mutated BRAF protein.
Read more →Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy. Immune cells are taken from a patient's tumor, grown in a lab, and returned by infusion.
Read more →Immune cells found among the tumor cells. Pathology reports grade them as absent, non-brisk, or brisk.
Read more →Breakdown of the skin over a melanoma, seen under the microscope. It moves the tumor into a higher-risk category at the same thickness.
Read more →Ultraviolet protection factor, the rating for clothing. UPF 50 fabric lets about 1/50th of UV through.
Read more →A daily forecast, on a scale from 0 to 11 and higher, of how strong the sun's ultraviolet radiation will be.
Read more →The 2 kinds of ultraviolet light that reach the ground. UVB causes most sunburn. UVA penetrates deeper and passes through window glass. Both damage DNA.
Read more →Melanoma of the middle layer of the eye. It is the most common cancer that starts inside the eye in adults, and it differs genetically from skin melanoma.
Read more →The standard operation for melanoma. The surgeon removes the biopsy site with a margin of normal skin whose width depends on tumor thickness.
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