Melanoma’s Background Information

Melanoma: A Dangerous Skin Cancer

Melanoma is typically a skin cancer that begins in the melanocytes. The melanin pigment that gives the skin, eyes, and other body parts their color is created by melanocytes. Moles are produced by melanocytes, and these moles provide melanoma growth sites. Therefore, having moles may be a risk factor, even if it’s not always true that moles lead to melanoma. The human epidermal melanocytic system is affected by three malignant malignancies. Lentigo, nodular, and superficial spreading melanoma are these (Clark et al. 705). Each of these types is unique when considering the structural features and the microscopic characteristics. Unlike other types of cancers, Melanoma is easily detectable on the skin using the eyes. If undetected, the cancer is likely to spread even to distant organs. This might result in metastatic melanoma which is difficult in its treatment.

The Importance of Prognostic Information and Staging

The formal staging of cancer has been fundamental for the generation of prognostic information necessary for the development of treatment strategies. Staging of the cutaneous melanoma is still evolving as new identification, and rigorous forms of analysis continue to be discovered. The first multivariate prognostic analyses were done three decades ago. In as far as the melanoma’s prognosis and staging are concerned, the discovery about the ulceration, tumor thickness, and the mitotic rate was a major achievement (Balch et al. 6199-6200). The researches done by the American Joint Committee on Cancer has done significant work in the development of the melanoma staging system which is currently in use. From the AJCC staging database analysis, the future studies should focus on how to evaluate the impact of the mitotic rates in all stages of the disease. There is also need to assess the microscopic nodal tumor in terms of the influence it has on the patients at stage III of the cancer.

Works Cited

Balch, Charles M., et al. “Final version of 2009 AJCC melanoma staging and classification.” Journal of clinical oncology 27.36 (2009): 6199-6206.

Clark, Wallace H., et al. “The histogenesis and biologic behavior of primary human malignant melanomas of the skin.” Cancer research 29.3 (1969): 705-727.