Did You Know?

• Excessive sun exposure can result in painful sunburn, but can also lead to other serious health problems, including melanoma, a life-threatening form of skin cancer.
• Melanoma is one of the fastest-growing forms of cancer.
• Children are at greatest risk, since serious sunburns during the first 18 years of life is believed to increase the risk of cancer by more than 50%.
• For those with sun-sensitive skin, fair complexions, light hair, or for those who spend excessive amounts of time in the sun
• in 1983, Drs. Kopf, Friedman and Rigel developed the A, B, C, D technique for diagnosing melanoma
  • surface characteristics that can be seen by all, patients and doctors alike.
    • A .... asymmetry,
    • B .....border irregularity,
    • C .....color variation
    • D .....diameter over 6mm (1/4 of an inch).

   

  A symmetry	not regularly round or regularly oval
  B order	notched, scalloped or poorly defined at the edges
  C olor variation	shades of brown, tan, red, white, blue or black alone or in any combination
  D iameter	6mm (the size of a pencil eraser)

What is it?

• Malignant melanoma represents approximately 5% of all skin cancers. Never the less, ALMOST 2/3 OF ALL DEATHS FROM SKIN CANCER ARE DUE TO MALIGNANT MELANOMA!
• Most cutaneous (skin) melanomas seem to develop without a history of a nevus.

The  four forms of cutaneous melanoma are
1)  lentigo maligna melanoma
2) superficial spreading melanoma 
3) nodular melanoma
4) acral lentiginous melanoma.

Who gets them?

• Primary  malignant melanomas of the eyelid are extremely rare; they amount to 1% of all eyelid cancers.  
• It has been estimated that an American's current lifetime risk for developing a skin melanoma is 1 in 128.

Where do they Occur?

• Lentigo maligna (Hutchinson's melanotic freckle) is considered the premalignant lesion of lentigo maligna melanoma. It a represents 10% of all skin melanomas is the most common form in the head and neck areas. 
• They are usually flat, tan to brown macule with irregular borders.
• Within the lesion, there may also be areas of white and grey. They most offen occur on sun-exposed facial skin in the  elderly. See the photo above .
• Superficial spreading melanoma is considered the more common form of   melanoma. It represents 70% of skin melanomas. It usuallly involves nonexposed skin surfaces. It may appear on the nonexposed skin surfaces and a grow faster than lentigo maligna.

Are they dangerous?

Yes!

Treatment

A patient with a suspected eyelid melanoma should have a careful  examination, an  incisional biopsy, and may ultimately require complete excision of the lesion  and follow-up with an oncologist since this tumor can spread throughout the body.

Excision of the tumor can be performed by a MOHS surgeon, an dermatologist, or an ophthalmic plastic surgeon.