Skin Cancer

What if you find a lesion that you believe could be melanoma? See your doctor right away. Early diagnosis can be life-saving.

The only way to diagnose a melanoma with certainty is to examine the tissue under a microscope -- a procedure called a biopsy.

The most important information the doctor gets from a biopsy is:

Is the lesion a melanoma, another type of skin cancer, or is it benign (non-cancerous)?
If the lesion is melanoma, how thick is it -- that is, how deeply has it penetrated into the skin?
The thickness of the melanoma is critical information, both for the planning of therapy and for informing the patient just how serious the disease may be. Thickness of tumor is related to the statistical survival rate after tumor removal.