Moles, sun damage, basal cell(HPV)

[sanfrancisco28]

Hello,

I am a 28 year old male from the bay area, ca. Randomly over the past year, i have developed over 200 new moles (mostly in sun exposed areas..my face, head, neck & forearms. The moles range from tiny pin hole sized spots on my face to larger 1inch sized moles (some are under the skin, some are outside of the skin).

I went to the doctor earlier in the year to have one mole on my face checked out (it was a little larger & seemed to have a purplish tint to it). The mole looked like all of the other ones but did have a little purple tint (was mostly blackish color otherwise). The biopsy turned out to be positive for Basal Cell Carcinoma which i have since had removed via the MOHS surgery.

After getting it removed, I have continued to notice new moles forming & have been EXTREMELY protective about not being in the sun & wearing good quality sun screen. Still, I seem to get these new moles & sun spots on my face. I have also noticed that my wife is getting very similar sun spots/moles on her face as well (and she is MUCH darker in skin complection.). Nobody in my family or her family has a history of skin cancers (nor do they have many moles).

This is incredibly concerning for me & my wife as I don't know what is going on. I've seen 3-4 different dermatologists whom have all pretty much said the same thing (avoid the sun, wear GREAT sun screen, monitor all moles, & have checkups every 6 months).

I am writing on here to see if anyone else has experienced something similar & wondering if there is anything i can try to reverse this pattern of new moles & freckles/sun spots on my face.

Is it possible that I or my wife have contracted something that causes moles? Maybe something that doesn't have a ton of research done on it?

I'm hoping to hear from people who've experienced something similar or whom have heard of solutions to this....understand WHY this is going on is almost as important as solving the problem. My wife had ZERO moles until the past year or so & now is getting the same sort of facial moles as myself (at 27 years of age).

Also, i have had HPV for 5 years now...could it be the culprit somehow?

Thanks for everyone & anyones help!!!

[joey90675]

If you think your moles is related to Hpv, only way to be sure is to do a biopsy and get DNA extracted fr the biopsy and ask for PCR and/RTPCR assay for hpv..You may want to do for more than 1 mole and also supply unblemished skin area for negative control somewhat..For HPV testing fr moles or skin biopsy..this is not frequently done anywhere i believe and more likely you d hv to find somebody you know working in microbiology/molecular biology lab or Doc who is willing to asisst you on this.. Common PCR tests also usually only scan for common high risks hpvs ..and we know now there are more than 100 diff types of hpvs..but customised assay is possible..though not frequent n the cost may be abit more..it is also possible to find new types of hpv in some instance

If you were to somehow identify hpv(s) dna in the mole(s) ..then perhaps the same assay could be done on yr partner to see if she has the same type of hpv(s) for the same lookalike mole you said..if you are eager to know

However it remains a question who has it first..bcos hpvs are  so common and one as to do more tests or history taking to conclusively deduce where it came from

There was this show on Discovery i think ..showing a man in indonesia having warts overgrowth all over his body..they call him tree man..that person has hpv infestation because somehow his immune system is deficient for somekind of immune regulatory protein.. That would happen in full blown case i guess.. But there are too many types of hpvs and i guess not that easy to id what a person has without complete n through analysis

If the test identified a type of hpv and yr partner has  the same type of hpv, then there could be a chance that the hpv is causing the moles development in you and yr partner...but such suggestion is only conclusively true if the strain or type of hpv found could be shown in a virology lab/model organism using suitable test that such hpv is causing skin moles development... cause n effect demonstration is required to conclude the hypothesis....So its quite complicated ..n most lab or hospital settings does not go or do such in depth analysis if the problem is not/seemingly not showing immediate life threat to a patient...Only doctor or lab that is interested on research would be more keen on pursuing this issue typically..that is if the case is fascinating enough to them

[veryworried420]

Yes, I also had pre-cancerous moles removed from me last year. The first time in my life that I had them. I don't believe it was just do to tanning but I cannot prove this. I did burn last summer due to stupidity. I now wear a large hat, 50 screen and sit under the umbrella a lot when on the beach. It just makes sense that somehow this virus (which is a skin disease) is somehow linked to skin cancers and moles.

Take a look at these links:

http://www.livescience.com/36225-skin-cancer-risk-hpv.html

and

http://news.cancerconnect.com/hpv-infection-may-raise-skin-cancer-risk/