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Lots more young people are getting skin cancer. How to identify melanoma before it gets out of hand.

Dermatologist goes over the specific signs you should look for to recognize melanoma before it spreads to other parts of the body.
Posted at 12:54 AM, May 22, 2024

BOISE — The summer sun may feel wonderful but the impact on your skin can be serious.

It can cause deadly melanoma.

And your risk is much greater if you have a family history or complicating condition.

1439 “I have vitiligo which is winnie Harlow, Michael Jackson you can’t tell on caucasian b ut it’s all over me and so I have to protect the skin.“

Staying out of the sun and wearing sun screen or block is key to that.

but if you get melanoma, the key to survival is early detection.

3348 “If we find it early we can remove it and that person is likely to be ok. There’s a 99 percent survival rate.”

The question is: what do you look for?

It’s called the ABCDE’s

A stands for Asymmetry.

4813 “We want one half to look like the other half.”

B is for smooth borders. C is for consistent color.

Dis for diameter smaller than a pencil eraser.

4852 “I think that’s the weakest criteria of the bunch. I see moles larger than 6 mm all the time that are completely normal.”

And E stands for evolving. If you notice a mole that all of a sudden starts to change, that should be a concern.