I'm a 58 year old female. In 1980 at age 33 a black mole on my should, which I had had all my life, developed a white ring around it. I went to a dermatologist who diagnosed it as a Halo Nevus and said not to worry about it. I did worry and the next weekend went to the emergency room. The ER Doctor also had a private practise as a GP and told me didn't think it was anything to worry about but that if I wanted him to he would take it off then and there. He removed the mole by excision in the ER room and took a medium margin of skin around it. The next week I went to his office for the biopsy results. After waiting for some time in the examining room the Doctor came in and told me the biopsy came back positive for a stage 1 melanoma. He said he had just talked to two oncologists, one on each Coast. I was in Conway, Arkansas at the time. Their recommendations were an immediate wider excision. The Doctor put me in the hospital that day and the next morning I was wheeled off to the operating room. He did a very wide excision and when I woke up my arm was strapped to my body and numb. He explained that certain nerves had unavoidably been cut during the surgery and it would take about 1 year for full sensation to return. The biopsy results from this surgery came back totally clean. I had check ups every 6 months for 5 years with no recurrence after over 20 years. I thank God every day I didn't listen to the Derm's advise and do nothing. Melanoma's are highly cureable at an early stage and mine was at a very early stage. Halo Nevi may be benign 99.9% of the time but there is always an exception. Two years ago I went to a Derm again and had another mole I was worried about checked, he also told me not to worry. HA! after my last experience I did worry, so I went to a plastic surgeon and had that mole and 11 others taken off at the same time. The particular mole I had asked the Derm to look at came back as "markedly displastic". I have no faith in dermatologists and highly suggest you trust your own emotions. If you're worried about it, have it taken off. If it comes back benign, great it's gone. If it comes back early melanoma...it's still gone. A win, win situation.
Thank you so much. I can rest a bit easier now. The information on the Internet can both relieve and terrify you at the same time.
A whitish circle around a mole does indeed suggest a halo nevus. Halo nevi are quite benign. This is good news.
Good luck.
Dr. Rockoff