MELANOMA CASE STUDIES

 

The stories below are from real people who decided to have a mole check with mole mapping, even though they hadn’t noticed anything suspicious on their skin. They made the effort to be screened.

They were initially devastated by the diagnosis but then greatly relieved when they learned that they could be completely cured by a simple matter of minor surgery because their melanomas had been spotted at such an early stage. They willingly agreed to let us use the images shown below to illustrate their story.

 

All of them are people who thought that these things only happened to other people. Their stories represent the essence of what MelanomaMobil is all about, as do the stories of all the other people who have left our clinic with a reassuring report and peace of mind.

John (aged 57)

“Based on what I have read and my knowledge of how cancer spreads I believe that going to have my moles checked for cancer was one of the most important steps I’ve taken in my life “ and definatley the right decision. Is it possible, that my life depended on just this one small step?”

John pictured with his family: At the time this photo was taken he had no idea that he had melanoma skin cancer.

Comment: John didn’t know he had anything on his back. In fact he only had a single tiny mole and a benign dermatofibroma on his skin. You couldn’t even say that he had to participate in the screening because he hasn’t been belonging to the high risk group of people with a large number of moles. When asked the reasons why he came along to the screening, his answer was: “I always take advantage of anything offered by corporate health screenings. This time it saved my life.”When it was removed we did a histological report of John’s melanoma which classified it at Clark II, Beslow 0.45 mm. Fortunatley for John this means that there is only a small chance that this melanoma will ever recur.

	“When I saw the doctor’s face I immediately suspected that something was wrong. He told me that the mole he had removed was unfortunately a malignant one. At that moment I couldn’t think of anything except what were the chances of it having spread and would that mean the end of my life? Fortunately the doctor reassured me that it had been spotted early and the melanoma was removed in enough time to cure me.”(Extract from Eva’s letter of thanks)
First examination: Follow-up examination:
Comment: It is apparent from these images that the change on the mole is less than 2mm. Eva didn’t even notice anything. She only came for a screening because it was time for her follow-up examination. We recommended preventive surgery because of the tiny change in pigmentation. However when the histology report came back it showed that it was indeed an early melanoma. Eva’s life has been saved.

 

Lina (aged 34)

First screening:	The screening noted an insignificant 1mm spot of pigment on the right breast which didn’t look it was anything serious at that time.
Follow-up examination: The marked spot of pigment had grown to 3mm but was not spotted by either the patient or the examining doctor. No equivocal sign suggesting a melanoma was apparent on the dermatoscopic picture. The preventative surgery was performed because of the slight change in size.
Comment: Lina’s case is particularly instructive. Firstly, she came to us “ like Eva “ just because it was time for her follow-up mole check and not because she had noticed any changes on her skin or had any concerns. Secondly, even the examining doctor didn’t notice anything. There are many places where patients are examined using a computer mole examination which is generally only used to examine suspicious moles as this method is time-consuming. However at MelanomaMobil every mole is recorded within just 30 minutes, regardless of the number of moles and how significant or suspicious they might look. Thanks to this technology (total body, full comparative method) we noticed the tiny change to this mole at our evaluation centre, although even then, we didn’t think it was a melanoma. We recommended diagnostic surgery to be certain. Upon performing the histology, it turned out that the 3mm lesion we had removed was an early melanoma. Lina’s life was also saved even though the doctor didn’t notice anything and the lesion we removed didn’t look like a melanoma.   Call to book an appointment: 0208 129 3066