I strongly recommend that everyone get a complete skin check at least once.  Evaluation of moles, other skin growths as well as presence of sun damage is important for everyone’s health.

Melanomas are the number one cause of cancer death in young adults and continue to increase in incidence as we get older.  Sometimes patients may be surprised to learn that they are at very high risk of skin cancer.  An example is someone with blue eyes that tans easily.  Frequently very fair skinned blue-eyed patients avoid the sun because it causes painful burns.  People with blue eyes still have increased cancer risk even if they tan easily.  They may get many times as much sun and more cancer than someone with fair skin that cannot tan.

Often people are worried about big ugly moles that may actually be quite safe.  In addition very few people know that having more than 7 moles below the waist is a risk factor for melanoma.  Many times this examination ends up only being a baseline examination and yearly follow-ups are strongly suggested unless something changes.  If a person has multiple slightly unusual moles, a yearly check up recommended but nothing removed.  Sometimes a patient may have multiple very unusual looking moles and a few of the strangest might be sent for pathology.  Although pictures and descriptions of melanomas and skin cancers can be very helpful, always look for the odd man out.  A funny mole appearing in a patient with numerous funny looking moles does not mean as much as a single funny mole appearing on a patient covered with ordinary appearing moles. I frequently explain that moles vary from normal to a little funny, funny, real funny, a little bad, bad and real bad.  This is an oversimplification in that the definition and significance of funny can be an entire medical textbook.

My patients that come in for yearly checkups and check themselves monthly rarely have anything beyond a little bad with an extremely good prognosis.  A mole removed just as it turns bad will have close to 100% survival.  The same mole left for a long time may have survival approaching zero.