Question
During your skin check with your dermatologist, you will often be asked some questions and examined to assess your risk for development of skin cancers.
This may include:
If you answer yes to any of these, you are at a slightly higher risk of developing skin cancer.
A melanoma may develop from a normal mole which then changes over time. A melanoma normally changes in shape, size and colour, sometimes slowly or sometimes very quickly. If a mole becomes very black, bleeds or have irregular borders and different colours within, do speed-dial your dermatologist office for an appointment.
Hi Yang Wei, It is excellent that you are taking steps to examine your own skin. This is what I'd always recommend all my patients to do in between their annual skin checks with me. The main abnormalities to look out for can be remembered as the ABCDE of abnormal moles: In addition, I also ask patients to look out for bleeding non-healing moles, and the “ugly duckling”. A mole that stands looks different from the rest should always be checked by a trained dermatologist.
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