Changes to Notice on Your Skin

What to look for in Melanoma

Coloured spots on your skin larger than a pencil eraser is cause for special attention especially if:

• They are flat:
  • Suddenly increase in size
  • Darkening of an existing mole
  • Slow change is much more common
• The spot is more than one colour - tan, brown, black can be present together - especially take note if you see a mix of red, white and blue
• One half doesn't match the other half
• The edges are ragged, notched, or blurred rather than smooth
• You see changes in mole surface (a late sign of melanoma):
  • Watch for scaliness, flaking, oozing (like when a scab comes off), ulceration, bleeding
  • Appearance of a nodule or bulging, mushrooming mass
• You notice a change in how a mole feels to the touch. (A late sign):
  • Getting hard
  • Getting lumps
• You notice a change in shape or outline of a mole
  • Finding an irregular, notched border where it used to be regular and smooth
  • Sudden elevation of a surface that used to be flat
• There is a change in skin around a mole like:
  • Spread of colour from the edge of the mole into the skin that used to be normal looking
  • Finding redness or swelling
  • A very late sign is if you see spots of color next to, but not a direct part of a mole
• There is a change in how the mole feels like:
  • Itchy
  • Tender
  • Painful
  • Scaling
• Bleeding

What to look for in Basal Cell Carcinoma

• An open wound or sore with a heaped-up or rolled edge and milky or pearly appearance
• Pale, waxlike, pearly bump or patch that may eventually bleed or become an open sore and crust over
• or less commonly a hard white patch in the skin, sometimes coloured
• Usually doesn't hurt
• If untreated, it may crust, and become an open sore, and sometimes bleed

What to look for in Squamous Cell Carcinoma

• Red, scaly, sharply outlined patch or plaque
• Can eventually become a hard, pale pink to white bump
• Pre-cancerous changes, called keratoses which look like small white horns or horny patches, may develop into squamous cell carcinoma
• Scaly patches
• An elevated hard bump or nodule
• A punched-out open sore, or
• An open sore with turned-out edges
• May metastasize (spread), especially cancer of the ear and lip