Amelanotic nodular melanoma obviously is one of the prime examples of skin cancer not arising from an existing mole. At least, in my experience, that is true. Now a study reported in June 2015 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting has added its voice.
According to the analysis of researchers, they discovered that non-mole melanomas “tend to be more common and more aggressive” and posit that biological differences between those types of melanomas account for the aggressiveness.
Another startling fact from this report is that only between 20% and 30% of melanomas are associated with moles. The term for melanoma without a mole is called “de novo” (which I did not know until now – yay, morbid Latin lesson for the day). More sobering, those types of cases were more likely to have cancer that had spread beyond stage 1. To be honest, even with all my reading about melanoma, I didn’t know that non-mole melanomas were as common. I can understand that these types are more likely to have spread because people are looking for moles when they are looking for cancer – not non-mole lesions.
One good, at least for me, fact from the report stated that women with de novo melanomas (melanomas without moles) had higher survival rates. Researchers aren’t exactly sure why that may be. It might be that women are more likely to head to the doctor and get treated earlier?
The upshot of this report is that melanoma can, and does, happen without a mole going rogue. In fact, it seems like melanoma could be more likely to pop up in a patch of skin that doesn’t have a suspicious mole around it. Do your own skin checks and ask a dermatologist to check out anything that doesn’t seem right. I am so grateful that no matter the motivation, I ended up getting my pink melanoma removed when I did. The alternative is pretty scary to think about.