Because of my history of amelanotic nodular melanoma, I’m all too familiar with skin cancer arising out of a patch of clear skin. Apparently researchers agree that new skin spots are just as worthy of a dermatologist’s review than existing moles.
The science behind this claim? Researchers reviewed 38 previously published medical studies involving more than 20,000 melanomas. Only 29% of diagnosed melanoma arose out of pre-existing moles, while 71% of melanoma formed as new skin lesions. (Spoiler alert, I’m part of the majority in this study.)
Another aspect of the study that’s worth noting? The lead researcher in the study stated that melanomas that arise on their own also tend to be more aggressive than melanomas associated with moles, suggesting the two types of malignancies might be different.
And this has pretty big consequences because when doing a skin check, you should be looking for not only changes to a mole but also looking to see if something new has popped up. Because if you have anything similar to my experience where that new thing was aggressive, there’s not a lot of opportunity to wait around to see what it does next.