It was good to have removed the whole thing and you should now should not mind these checkups.
My best wishes.
Had surgery today to remove any residual cells. My dermatopathologist (MOHS surgeon) said this was 'serious' but was not cancer and not melanoma but would have become melanoma at some point. He also told me the surgery he did today was the very same surgery he would have done if it WERE early melanoma. Stitches out in 2 weeks.
Full body checks every 3 months for 2 years and if nothing else is found, we'll move to 6 months if I feel comfortable doing that.
One other question, does this mean I have a high chance of developing melanoma? I had a mildly dysplastic mole last year and then this. I have virtually no moles and only a few freckles, no family history and I take aspirin daily (supposed to reduce melanoma 30%) to prevent recurrence of colon cancer.
I'm so glad you answered! Words like 'severe' and 'pre cancer' have scared me so much AND I called my nurse help line with our insurance and this RN kept saying 'Be sure to find out the stage of your melanoma'. That really blew my mind.
I had colon cancer in Jan. 2009 and all clear til Feb. 2012. In April 2012 I had 80% of my liver removed because of a solitary 1.5cm liver met (from the colon cancer) and after that, must have PTSD or some form of severe hypochondriac anxiety!
Thanks for taking the time to answer me!
Complete or large excision of all clinically atypical naevi permits histological assessment of the entire lesion, and in most cases spares the patient the need for further surgical intervention.J Clin Patholv.57(11); Nov 2004.
As I can see in your case the pathologist is to take a look at the entire area by getting the entire tissue with a margin.
Despite the severe atypia it is no indication it is on the way to melanoma.
Family history, multiple dysplastic nevi syndrome are the negative factors towards progression.
Do keep cool and quite certain the problem should get solved with large excision.
Cheers.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/moles
The risk is much more in families with melanomas and dysplastic nevus syndrome FAMM Syndrome.
In a 10-year retrospective study, Marghoob et al. calculated that the risk of developing skin melanoma
was 10.7% in patients with DNS compared to the
controls, whose risk was 0.62%.