Cancer
According to the National Cancer Institute, researchers have shown that atypical moles are more likely than ordinary moles to develop into a type of skin cancer called melanoma. It is worth noting that the vast majority of atypical moles will never become malignant. However, numerous studies indicate that about half of melanomas arise from atypical moles. Evidence supporting this connection arises from clinical photodocumentation of evolving lesions, patient self-reports of changing lesions, pathology studies showing dysplastic nevi in histologic contiguity with melanoma, and epidemiology studies indicating that about half of individuals affected by melanoma also have atypical moles. Epidemiology studies have also shown that individuals with multiple dysplastic nevi are at much higher risk for developing melanomas. Because of this, moles should be checked regularly by a doctor or nurse specialist, especially if they look complex; grow larger; or change in color, or shape; or if any changes occur, such as itching, flaking or oozing.
Read more about this topic: Dysplastic Nevus
Famous quotes containing the word cancer:
“I’m beginning to believe that Killer Illiteracy ought to rank near heart disease and cancer as one of the leading causes of death among Americans. What you don’t know can indeed hurt you, and so those who can neither read nor write lead miserable lives, like Richard Wright’s character, Bigger Thomas, born dead with no past or future.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“The truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Marx, and Balanchine ballets don’t redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“We “need” cancer because, by the very fact of its incurability, it makes all other diseases, however virulent, not cancer.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. “Under the Sign of Cancer,” Myths and Memories (1986)