Friend with Melinoma

luckyduck
luckyduck Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Skin Cancer #1
My friend has been diagnosed with Melinoma Cancer. We're not close enough that he gives me all the details of his situatioin, and I feel like an intruder by involving myself. I just hope that he's getting the best care that he can get and I'd like to find some way to help. This has really effected me because I can't even imagine what he must be going through. I tell everyone to positive and that he may be able to deal with this thing for a good long time. I could really use some encouragement here - a success story or something. He had a mole removed from his neck early this year. It was a malignant melinoma and later tests revealed that it had spread. They removed lymph nodes and tissue and I guess it was further along than the doctors supected. I'm hearing its stage IV, cell activity in the bones and now his back is really hurting. He's a tough guy, young, we can help him through this - right?

Comments

  • Carvs
    Carvs Member Posts: 30
    #2
    I am so sorry to hear of your friend's diagnosis. I have Stage III melanoma and I am providing a link to a very active melanoma board http://www.mpip.org/bb/bbindex.html
    I suggest that you go to that board and ask any questions you have, search the archives and look at the resources.

    If your friend had lymph node involvement in the lymph node basin closest to his primary, that would have put him at stage III. If he does have melanoma in his bones then that would make him stage IV. You mention cell activity which sounds like he had a PET scan. If he has not had a biopsy to confirm melanoma after a scan, there is still hope that it hasn't spread there. It's obviously not good that his back hurts if there is activity sugesstive of melanoma in related bones, but sometimes post surgery issues from the lymph node dissections can also cause a variety of pain.

    One thing you might want to do is make sure your friend is going to a melanoma specialist and I like going to a clinic in a large research university. There are also good melanoma clinics in major cancer centers.

    You might want to check out the clinical trials for melanoma on the NCI site.

    Best of luck to your friend and to you.

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