Skin cancer
posted by rosegarden
29 October 2011

melanoma

Last reply: 04 November 2011 14:24

my dad was told last week he has melanoma. its on his back. he was told it was 4mm, not sure if that is bad or not. has he a chance of survival? we are not sure of the stage. he is going for surgery in 4 weeks. we feel this is too far away, we are trying to get that changed. thats all we know till the op. can we hope? would love advice.

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Comments

commented by rob
04 November 2011

04 November 2011 14:24

Hi rose garden .i wouldent get overly stressed about the four week wait for surgery esp if you dads mole was removed by excisional biopsy,this type of biopsy removes all the mole and usually all the cancer at the mole site.incisional biopsy removes part of the mole .shave biopsy shaves off a small layer of skin. And a punch biopsy punches out a core of tissue with apunch instroment. The gold standard regarding biopsy for melanoma is excisional biopsy.see melanoma guidelines mentioned in my other post for explaination of this.excisional biopsy yeilds very accurate pathology results and gives a very accurate breslow measurment and clarkes level of skin invasion.if ye can get him in earlier than four weeks great if not try not to worry to much.were is he being treated . Try your best not to worry to much.absorb as much info as you can so that you can better understand what the doctors are talking about, try not to let it take over your life .peace to you and yours , rob

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