The sh0cking footage reveals skin cancer can come in many different shapes, sizes and colors
Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the US with the American Academy of Dermatology Association estimating a whopping one in five Americans develop the condition in their lifetime.
Melanoma is the deadliest form of the cancer, though makes up around one percent of all cases in the US with the vast majority determined as basal and squamous cell carcinonmas.
According to the NHS, the main symptoms include changes to the skin, moles or appearance of new moles.
Now, doctor John O’Bryen, who goes by ‘skincaredoctor’ on TikTok, has been diligently raising awareness to the disease – and how people can spot the signs, even when they aren’t so obvious.
The specialist at Body Scan Skin Cancer Clinic in Australia has been raising awareness to the fact not all melanomas appear as freckles or moles and revealed in a shocking video the ‘worst’ type of skin cancer he has ever diagnosed.
The doc said in his video: “A man came to me last week, concerned about a new lump on his arm. It was red and had been quickly growing in size.”
Horrifyingly, O’Bryen showed a close-up video of the cancer with a ‘dermatoscope’, which revealed the spot was pink and white in color.
He said it measured 4mm on the Breslow thickness scale, which is used to measure the depth of a melanoma from the top of its granular layer to the deepest point of the tumor.
On the outside, it looked like a slightly elevated red lump, but under the microscope had ‘white polarising lines’ and ‘polymorphous vessels.’
The doc quickly diagnosed the patient as having a nodular melanoma, a dangerous type as he said they ‘grow quickly and cause the greatest fatality’.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, nodular melanomas present as a ‘firm, raised, discolored growth’ on the skin that can appear like a blood blister and may be itchy, sting or bleed.
They can look like a dome-shaped growth and can have either smooth texture or a ‘crusty’, rough feel, which the Clinic describes as like a cauliflower.
It can also grow both above and below the skin, yet most of the cancer sits below the surface – ‘like an iceberg’.
Nodular melanoma is the second-most common type, making up about 15 to 20 percent of diagnoses.
This type of skin cancer is also behind around 50 percent of all melanoma-related deaths.
Writing further in the caption of his viral video, he said: “Scary! Not all melanomas are brown and black!
“I performed an excisional biopsy of this and the patient will see a melanoma surgeon and medical oncologist.”
He added how his magnifying tool, the Heine Delta 30 Pro dermascope, ‘continues to assist me in diagnosing skin cancers’ and has helped him to find and treat 1,000 people last year.
Source: unilad.com