Types of melanoma

In melanoma, the melanocytes also start to spread into the surrounding surface layers of skin. When they grow out of control, they usually look like a dark spot or mole on your skin.

Types of melanoma Back to top

There are four main types of skin (cutaneous) melanoma:

• Superficial spreading melanoma is the most common type of skin melanoma. In women the most common place for it to start is on the legs; in men it’s on the chest and the back. Usually the melanoma cells grow slowly at first, spreading out across the surface of the skin.
• Nodular melanoma is the second most common type. It can grow more quickly than other melanomas and is usually found on the chest, back, head or neck.
• Lentigo maligna melanoma is usually found in older people in areas of skin that have had a lot of exposure to the sun over many years (most often the face and neck). It develops from a slow-growing precancerous condition called a lentigo maligna or Hutchison’s freckle, which looks like a stain on the skin.
• Acral melanoma is the rarest type and is usually found on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, or under fingernails or toenails. It’s more common in people with black or brown skin and isn’t thought to be related to sun exposure.

Rarely, melanoma can start in parts of the body other than the skin. It can start in the eye (ocular melanoma|) or in the tissues that line the inside of the body, such as the nose, mouth, lung, and digestive tract (mucosal melanomas)

Advanced melanoma Back to top

Melanoma is advanced when the cancerous cells have spread from the original melanoma to other parts of the body. When the cancer cells from a tumour spread to a different part of the body, they grow into new a cancer (known as a secondary cancer or metastasis). If melanoma spreads, it’s most likely to spread to one or more of the following parts of the body:

• areas of skin distant from the original melanoma
• lymph nodes (sometimes called glands) distant from the original  melanoma
• the lungs
• the liver
• the bones
• the brain.

Some people are diagnosed with advanced melanoma when a melanoma has come back in another part of the body. This can sometimes be years after the original melanoma was first removed. In others, advanced melanoma is diagnosed when the melanoma is removed and further tests then show that it has spread.