A Girl’s Gotta Spa posted “Beauty Marks, Moles or Skin Cancer?” featuring Dr. Purvisha Patel.
Stop melanoma in its tracks. A Girl’s Gotta Spa asked Dr. Patel to weigh in on the difference between a mole, a beauty mark and skin cancer.
Skin cancer has been on my mind a lot lately. My aunt died at the age of 29 from Melanoma, family members have caught skin cancer early, and our editor, Amanda, constantly battles skin cancer daily.
Amanda is a Melanoma survivor, but just because they caught it early doesn’t mean she is in the clear. Over the past year, Amanda has repeatedly found new moles and marks on her body, and even though some of them appeared completely normal and not within the ABCDE’s. Each time she has been told that what her dermatologist scooped was found to be in the stage just before turning cancerous. Some have even been found where she can’t see and caught by her gynocologist. This is scary and I can only imagine the paranoia that sets in with every new spot that appears.
To start, when examining unusual spots, Dr. Purvisha Patel, owner and dermatologist at Advanced Dermatology & Skin Cancer Associates recommends looking out for the following signs of melanoma:
- Asymmetrical shape that melanoma is known for
- Irregular borders around the spot
- Multiple colors, such as blue, black, brown and tan
- A diameter at least the size of a pencil eraser
- Change in color or size
However, one thing that Amanda has told me is that many of the spots she had her derm look at recently did not exhibit any of these things.