Melanoma is also common on the legs in women. According to the American Cancer Society , the 5-year survival rate for stage 4 melanoma is 15—20 percent. This means that an estimated 15—20 percent of people with stage 4 melanoma will be alive 5 years after diagnosis. Survival rates are estimates that use data from large group studies and do not take individual circumstances into account. Doctors previously considered advanced melanoma to be untreatable, but today the outlook has significantly improved.
The most noticeable sign of melanoma is the appearance of a new mole or a change in an existing mole or birthmark. People should be aware of any pigmented areas on the skin that appear abnormal in color, shape, size, or texture. People with stage 4 melanoma may also have ulcerated skin , which is skin with tiny breaks on the surface. These ulcerations can bleed. Another sign is swollen or hard lymph nodes, which a doctor can confirm by carrying out a physical examination.
Other tests include blood tests and imaging scans to confirm the presence of cancer and check how much it has spread. Doctors may use traditional methods to treat stage 4 melanoma. These include surgery, radiation therapy , and chemotherapy. Newer methods of treatment for stage 4 melanoma include immunotherapy and targeted therapy. These treatments specifically target and destroy the cancer cells, avoiding damage to surrounding healthy cells. In about half of all melanoma cases , there are mutations or genetic changes in a gene called the BRAF gene.
People with melanoma who have this mutated gene can use targeted therapy drugs called BRAF inhibitors. These medicines attack the BRAF protein and shrink or slow the growth of the cancer cells. People can do a few things to make it easier to cope with a stage 4 melanoma diagnosis, the treatment, and the post-treatment journey:.
These tests may include:. Most people with melanoma need to have surgery. In some cases, melanomas may be treated by immunotherapy and targeted therapy, chemotherapy , and less frequently radiotherapy.
Your doctor will advise you on the best treatment for your cancer. This will depend on the type of cancer you have, where it is, how far it has spread, your general health and what you want. Melanomas are usually removed by surgery except when the melanoma is too advanced. The surgeon also removes some normal-looking skin around the melanoma. This is called a 'margin of safety' and the margin varies from 5 mm to 2 cm. The purpose is to get rid of any cancer cells in the surrounding skin and prevent the melanoma from growing back at the same site.
Most people will be able to have their skin sewn up with normal stitches. If the surgeon needs some extra tissue to close the wound, a skin graft or flap may be required. Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with anti-cancer medication. The aim is to destroy cancer cells while doing the least possible damage to normal cells.
The medication works by stopping cancer cells from growing and reproducing, and is usually given by injecting the medication into a vein intravenous treatment. There are other types of chemotherapy, including tablets, which may be suitable for you. Your oncologist cancer specialist will discuss these options with you. With melanomas, chemotherapy is used as palliative treatment to try to control the growth of the cancer and relieve symptoms.
Chemotherapy usually does not cure melanomas. Biological therapies are treatments using substances made naturally by the body. Some of these treatments are called immunotherapy because they help the immune system fight the cancer, or they occur naturally as part of the immune system.
There are many biological therapies being researched and trialled, which in the future may help treat people with melanoma. They include monoclonal antibodies and vaccine therapy. Radiotherapy treats melanomas by using radiation to destroy or injure cancer cells. The radiation can be targeted onto cancer sites in your body. Treatment is carefully planned to do as little harm as possible to your normal body tissue.
You will probably have radiotherapy once a day from Monday to Friday over several weeks, with a break on the weekends. The number of visits you need to make will depend on the size and type of the melanoma and on your general health. The treatment itself only takes a few minutes and is not painful. Radiotherapy treatment for melanoma does not make you radioactive, so it's quite safe to be close to your partner, children and others during the course of treatment. It's common for people with cancer to seek out complementary or alternative treatments.
When used alongside your conventional cancer treatment, some of these therapies can make you feel better and improve your quality of life. Others may not be so helpful and in some cases may be harmful. It is important to tell all your healthcare professionals about any complementary medicines you are taking. Never stop taking your conventional treatment without consulting your doctor first. All treatments can have side effects.
These days, new treatments are available that can help to make many side effects much less severe than they were in the past. Ninety per cent of Victorians are alive 5 years after a diagnosis of melanoma. The prognosis is better for women than for men.
Your medical history is unique, so you will need to discuss with your doctor what you can expect and the treatment options that are best for you. If your cancer has spread and it is not possible to cure it by surgery, your doctor may still recommend treatment. In this case, treatment may help to relieve symptoms, might make you feel better and may allow you to live longer.
Whether or not you choose to have anti-cancer treatment, symptoms can still be controlled. For example, if you have pain, there are effective treatments for this. General practitioners, specialists and palliative care teams in hospitals all play important roles in helping people with cancer.
But when not caught early, it spreads easily to other parts of the body. If melanoma cells are still making melanin, the tumors tend to be brown or black. Clues that a mole might be melanoma are:. This may be because these areas have more exposure to the sun than other parts of the body. The most common type of melanoma is superficial spreading melanoma. It tends to spread across the surface of the skin, has uneven borders, and varies in color from brown to black, pink, or red.
Nodular melanoma is another type that grows down into deeper layers of the skin and may appear as a raised bump or growth. Lentigo maligna melanoma tends to appear on parts of the body that get more sun, especially the face, and it often affects older people. It looks like a large, uneven dark patch on the surface of the skin. Metastatic melanoma occurs when the cancer spreads, or metastasizes, to other parts of the body, possibly including the lymph nodes, organs, or bones.
Other rare types of melanoma also exist, and while it most commonly affects the skin, some affect internal tissues, as well as the eyes. The American Cancer Society states that the lifetime risk of developing melanoma is about:. Melanoma is reportedly 20 times more common in white people than Black people. Keep in mind that this data may be due to inequities in healthcare and other contributing factors. If a parent or sibling has had melanoma in the past, you may have a higher chance of developing melanoma.
The risk of melanoma grows as you age. Cancer staging tells you how far cancer has grown from where it originated. Cancer can spread to other parts of the body through tissue, the lymph system, and the bloodstream. You have abnormal melanocytes, but only on the outermost layer of skin epidermis. This is also called melanoma in situ.
You have a tumor of any size that may or may not be ulcerated. At least one of these is also true:.
Stage 0 melanoma only involves the top layer of skin. If not, your surgeon can remove it, along with a border of normal skin. Very thin melanomas can be completely removed during biopsy. If not, they can be surgically removed later. This involves removing the cancer along with a margin of healthy skin and a layer of tissue underneath the skin.
Stage 3 melanoma has spread away from the primary tumor or into nearby lymph nodes. Wide-excision surgery is used to remove the tumor and affected lymph nodes.
In stage 4 melanoma, cancer has spread to distant sites. The skin tumors and some enlarged lymph nodes can be surgically removed. You can also have surgery to remove tumors on internal organs.
But your surgical options depend on the number, size, and location of tumors. Chemotherapy for melanoma can shrink tumors, but they can recur within a few months. Each type of therapy comes with its own set of side effects, some of which can be serious.
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