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Medical Oncologist (Cancer Specialist)
Usually melanomas have variable dark color (black, brown, red etc) due to excessive melanin pigment production. Rarely there are melanomas that aren't darkly colored. They are called amelanotic melanomas.
The depth of melanoma is a very important variable in prognosis. But there are other factors to be considered as well. They include if there is any ulcer on the top of the tumour, blood test (LDH), microscopic examination of tumour (showing proportion of dividing tumour cells, and invasion of various drainage vessels). The first line of management of any melanoma is to resect that with good enough margin of healthy cells. After that the pathology result can tell us about the other prognostic factors. Your doctor can synthesize all the factors to tell you about the chances of full recovery.
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Plastic Surgeon
Amelanotic melanoma is an uncommon type of melanoma as the cells don't have as much of the melanin or brown pigment as we see normally. This means that they can appear as a pink lesion rather than a brown lesion.
Because they are harder to identify, as they do not have the usual suspicious colour change of melanoma, Amelanotic melanoma is often identified at a later stage and is more advanced. This is the main difference compared to the more common ‘melanotic’ or pigmented melanoma.
Once diagnosed, the prognosis (or chance of survival) with amelanotic melanoma is the same as for melanotic melanoma -it depends on the depth (called Breslow thickness) most importantly, in addition to some other factors that are looked at on examination of the skin specimen. The thickness of 1.25mm is at an intermediate level, and with appropriate surgical care, has a good prognosis (5-10% risk of death in 5 years, 90-95% of survival). A specialist surgeon in your area will be able to counsel you and your family about this in greater detail. Good luck.
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HealthShare Member
Dear Dr Woods
Thank you so much for your response you have certainly made the diagnosis much clearer I really appreciate it.
Regards
Beverly
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