The number and shape of moles on your skin can indicate your risk of malignant melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. The results, reported in tomorrow's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association , suggest that doctors should regularly examine moles of patients during physical examinations.
Although researchers have long known that large, irregular shaped moles are most likely to go wrong, Margaret Tucker of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues at Harvard Medical School wanted to identify the relation between the size, number and type of mole and melanoma risk. They asked dermatologists in two research centers on the major skin cancer - the Melanoma Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco, and the pigmented lesion clinic of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania - take detailed notes on the characteristics of moles for patients and melanoma moles turned into
having collected data on 738 patients with melanoma and 1,030 melanoma patients, Tucker's team found that subjects with more than 100 small moles -. 2-5 millimeters in diameter - were twice as high a risk of melanoma as did people with fewer moles. In addition, having one mole with an irregular contour or a color marbled also doubled the risk. Patients with 10 or more moles irregular had 12 times the risk of cancer patients without these moles.
The results are not surprising, as other epidemiological studies have implicated the moles as a risk factor for melanoma, said Sewa Legha, a clinical oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. However, he said, better quantify the risk is important because too few doctors understand the importance of regular skin examinations. "Doctors are not well versed in recognizing abnormal moles," he said. "It should be a part of a routine physical examination." Tucker added that the data his team "allow doctors to determine, based on physical examination, if a person is at moderate risk or very high risk."
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