Anal cancer now Melanoma

wiveliscombe

In 2012 I was diagnosed with anal cancer and was overwhelmd with the support and help I received from people on this site. I wasn't able to complete the chemo treatment due to a bad reaction but did finish the radiation. All my check ups since then have been clear.Last week I had a biopsy done on a mole on my leg and have been diagnosed with melanoma and am waiting to see doc. I moved from California last year to Houston so am going to MD Anderson. My concern is could this be related to the anal cancer?

lp1964

Dear Friend,

It's very unlikely that they are directly related. of course chemo and radiation effects your immun system negatively and theoretically you can get other illnesses more easily. Melanoma is very common especially if you live in a sunny climate.

good luck, hopefully it's just an easy excision.

Laz

mp327

wiveliscombe

I remember you from your previous posts and I'm glad that your follow-ups for anal cancer have been clear.  I am sorry, however, to hear that you now are dealing with the melanoma.  Since this is a different type of cancer cell than the squamous cell anal cancer, I would not think they would be related.  Unfortunately, the sun that we love causes most cases of melanoma.  You are getting treatment at a top-notch hospital, so that will definitely work in your favor.  I hope this has been caught early and that once you have treatment, you will have no more issues with it.  Please keep us posted.

Martha

Cazz

mp327 said:

wiveliscombe

I remember you from your previous posts and I'm glad that your follow-ups for anal cancer have been clear.  I am sorry, however, to hear that you now are dealing with the melanoma.  Since this is a different type of cancer cell than the squamous cell anal cancer, I would not think they would be related.  Unfortunately, the sun that we love causes most cases of melanoma.  You are getting treatment at a top-notch hospital, so that will definitely work in your favor.  I hope this has been caught early and that once you have treatment, you will have no more issues with it.  Please keep us posted.

Martha

Melanoma

I have been looking at clinical trials for immunotherapy at MD Anderson and only this morning remarked how many there were for melanoma.  They are a top rated hospital and I think you will get great care there.  It seems to me that all the new drugs and therapies get tried on the melanoma patients first, so hopefully they will have something good that will wipe it out for good from you.

Lorikat

Melanoma -- anal cancer

I had Melanoma two years before SCC anal cancer....  It's seems several people have had both.  Eerie, huh?

 

Ouch_Ouch_Ouch

Lorikat said:

Melanoma -- anal cancer

I had Melanoma two years before SCC anal cancer....  It's seems several people have had both.  Eerie, huh?

 

Lots of melanoma afoot (and even ON the foot).

I'm sorry that malignant melanoma has developed, but I'm glad That it's been found.

There are many cases of malignant melanoma because, as Ms Martha pointed out, unprotected sunworshippers eventually pay the price. It used to appear on the head/face/neck and hands/arms of people who worked outdoors (farmers, builders, fishermen, etc), but with the rise of sunbathing and the cult of "tan = healthy-looking", it now appears on new areas of the body, like the legs, feet (even between the toes), and torso. Holes in the ozone layer don't help us, either.

The A - B - C - D - E criteria used to guide medicos: A = asymmetry; B = borders that are irregular and notched or scalloped; C = color with a spotchy, vari-colored appearance; D = diameter that is larger than the usual mole; E = evolutionary changes in the appearance of moles over time. http://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/melanoma

However, I attended a dermatology seminar for non-dematology medical professionals about 10 years back where one of the speakers, a noted dermatologist from Texas, spoke about his criteria. He said that so many biopsies came back as MM that he no longer follows the A-B-C-D-E crieteria, but biopsies everything.

Avoid mid-day sun; apply and re-apply sunblock; cover your skin as much as possible; use wide-brimmed hats and umbrellas; abandon tanning beds; consider having periodic body photography by a dermatologist.

If you need to have a cancerous lesion removed (not just MM), seek out a "Mohs surgeon". That technique removes as much tissue as needed without removing any extra. It's less disfiguring.

As in any serious condition, EARLY detection is crucial. Fingers tightly crossed for you!

mp327

Ouch_Ouch_Ouch said:

Lots of melanoma afoot (and even ON the foot).

I'm sorry that malignant melanoma has developed, but I'm glad That it's been found.

There are many cases of malignant melanoma because, as Ms Martha pointed out, unprotected sunworshippers eventually pay the price. It used to appear on the head/face/neck and hands/arms of people who worked outdoors (farmers, builders, fishermen, etc), but with the rise of sunbathing and the cult of "tan = healthy-looking", it now appears on new areas of the body, like the legs, feet (even between the toes), and torso. Holes in the ozone layer don't help us, either.

The A - B - C - D - E criteria used to guide medicos: A = asymmetry; B = borders that are irregular and notched or scalloped; C = color with a spotchy, vari-colored appearance; D = diameter that is larger than the usual mole; E = evolutionary changes in the appearance of moles over time. http://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/melanoma

However, I attended a dermatology seminar for non-dematology medical professionals about 10 years back where one of the speakers, a noted dermatologist from Texas, spoke about his criteria. He said that so many biopsies came back as MM that he no longer follows the A-B-C-D-E crieteria, but biopsies everything.

Avoid mid-day sun; apply and re-apply sunblock; cover your skin as much as possible; use wide-brimmed hats and umbrellas; abandon tanning beds; consider having periodic body photography by a dermatologist.

If you need to have a cancerous lesion removed (not just MM), seek out a "Mohs surgeon". That technique removes as much tissue as needed without removing any extra. It's less disfiguring.

As in any serious condition, EARLY detection is crucial. Fingers tightly crossed for you!

Ouch

Thanks for your post, especially this time of year, when we are all more active outdoors.  Next month I will be getting my yearly full body check by my dermatologist.  I have been lucky so far to not have anything show up of concern, despite years of worshipping old Sol (before we knew Sol had such a sinister side).  My husband has not been quite so fortunate, as he's had to undergo MOHS surgery on both his nose and one ear for basal cell.  I have a neighbor named Trey Rood who is about 20 years old now who was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma in his teens, which eventually became stage 4.  If you google his name, I'm sure you'll find information about his journey on the internet.  He has been through a lot for a young man, but currently seems to be doing well.  Trey has received treatment in Europe and at MDA.  He has quite an amazing story and he and his mom have written a book together.  His case was a real wake-up call for me.  No more laying on my deck to get nice and tan!

Here's a link to an article about him that appeared in our local newspaper awhile back.

http://www.forsythnews.com/archives/25578/

Ouch_Ouch_Ouch

mp327 said:

Ouch

Thanks for your post, especially this time of year, when we are all more active outdoors.  Next month I will be getting my yearly full body check by my dermatologist.  I have been lucky so far to not have anything show up of concern, despite years of worshipping old Sol (before we knew Sol had such a sinister side).  My husband has not been quite so fortunate, as he's had to undergo MOHS surgery on both his nose and one ear for basal cell.  I have a neighbor named Trey Rood who is about 20 years old now who was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma in his teens, which eventually became stage 4.  If you google his name, I'm sure you'll find information about his journey on the internet.  He has been through a lot for a young man, but currently seems to be doing well.  Trey has received treatment in Europe and at MDA.  He has quite an amazing story and he and his mom have written a book together.  His case was a real wake-up call for me.  No more laying on my deck to get nice and tan!

Here's a link to an article about him that appeared in our local newspaper awhile back.

http://www.forsythnews.com/archives/25578/

PS:

I neglected to say that people should wear sunglasses that protect from as much UV radiation as possible to prevent melanoma of the eyes.

---> Also: while palefaces like me are more likely to develop skin cancer, just because one may have an Asian, Hispanic, or African - type complexion, that does NOT make them immune from skin cancers.

Ouch_Ouch_Ouch

Anal cancer doesn't = malignant melanoma.

Though SCCA (squamous cell carcinoma of the anus) can metastasize anywhere that the ciculatory system can take it (usually upstream into nodes, liver, and lungs), I can only imagine that it would be extremely rare (if at all) for it to manifest on the surface of one's skin. Malignant melanoma is an entirely separate form of cancer with an entirely different cause. As they pointed out in Cancer: The Emporor of All Maladies: 1 in 300 children will get cancer, 1 in 3 women will get cancer, and (the most shocking!) 1 in 2 men will get cancer.

"A to Z List of Cancers" - http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/alphalist

Ouch_Ouch_Ouch

Ouch_Ouch_Ouch said:

PS:

I neglected to say that people should wear sunglasses that protect from as much UV radiation as possible to prevent melanoma of the eyes.

---> Also: while palefaces like me are more likely to develop skin cancer, just because one may have an Asian, Hispanic, or African - type complexion, that does NOT make them immune from skin cancers.

Tanning bed bad news - piling it on.

If the risk of developing malignant melanoma isn't enough to keep people from those tanning beds, maybe this news will be creepy enough to keep folks away:

I just read an article about a researcher who found that skin bacterias and viruses that shed from tanning people easily survive on the beds of the machines.....stuff like staph, fecal bacteria, herpes, and HPV.

The article says that most people assume that the beds are disinfected between users (not always), that users keep their genitals covered while tanning (not always), that the UV light and heat of the beds kills germs (the opposite can happen - they can thrive in the warmth and develop resistence to the UV light and any antiseptics that are used).

Eeeoooowwww! Cooties!