Diagnosed with Melanoma

[Star 1]

Hello - I was diagnosed with stage 1 melanoma on my right thigh in December 2006.  I was very fortunate as the thickness was only 0.3 mm without ulceration.  Since then I have had about 6 pre-cancerous moles removed. I have my blood work and lymph nodes checked regularly by an oncologist and I have also had x-rays & ct scans and everything has come back clean.   My problem is that I went to the oncologist last month for my routine checkup and he discovered that two of my lymph nodes in my groin area near the melanoma were slightly swollen.  He told me that he wasn’t too concerned but wanted me to come back in a month so he could check it again.  Well a month later they were still swollen and he has ordered at PET scan. I am freaking out now that the melanoma could have spread to my lymph nodes.  Is it possible that my melanoma, as small as it was and un-ulcerated, could have spread?
Any advice or guidance that anyone could provide would be very helpful.  

[Enoch Choi, MD]

American Joint Committee on Cancer has defined a staging system for melanoma based on these characteristics:
thickness
ulceration (loss of skin) over the surface
spread to the draining lymphatics and/or "regional" lymph nodes
spread beyond the lymph nodes (distant metastases)

Melanomas less than 1mm have a low likelihood of tumor spread to the regional lymph nodes, roughly less than 10 percent.  The PET scan will determine the activity level of these and other lymph nodes to see if a biopsy is necessary.

Dr. Enoch Choi, MD
Palo Alto, CA

[CaymanDjay]

I am like you, Stage 1 melanoma with Breslow depth of .16mm, no ulceration (diagnosed Jan.4/08, removed all melanoma Jan.1/08 on left thigh).  
Because I was stage 1 with no chance of this spreading, lymph nodes were not checked.  However, after careful thought and research into this disease, I have since found out although rare, that Melanoma can present itself in the lower bowel (and this could be a primary source, again although rare), they say Melanoma is mainly a skin cancer presenting itself only on the skin first.  Many case studies I have found though from those with Stage 3 & 4 have been healthy looking moles that had a golf ball size tumor underneath and didn't present itself until pain was noted or mole removed finally.  

Get them to check your lower bowel again on your CT Scan, or get another CT scan done.  The PET scan might not show up this mass in your lower bowel (as I've come to find out).  Sometimes this cancer in the bowel goes undetected by ALL SCANS unless they do exploratory surgery known as Laparoscopy.  It's a camera that goes through the abdomom and checks for tumors or growths.

[JACK37]

I had a melanoma on top of my head in Sept 2007,  It was .75mm dept.  I had a section of my skin cut around it and I had lymph moles mapping with the sentinal one removed.  All checked out ok.  Well now I find my lymph mode under one of my arm is swell up a little.  I was told this has nothing to do with my melanoma on my head.  And that is may be nothing at all.    Did you get extra skin cut out and did you get lymph node mapping done??