Hi,

I'm sorry you are having this worry but it's good that you have an appointment arranged with your GP.

I'm afraid you have asked questions that can't be answered & that is why you can't find anything on the internet that gives a definitive yes or no. No two cancer patients, especially with melanoma, will present in exactly the same way, so there is no 'one size fits all'. Melanoma is the most unpredictable of the cancers so you may have 20 patients with similar looking brown/black moles and find that 5 are melanoma, a couple are dysplastic/atypical moles and the rest are benign. This is why dermatologists can't give a 100% diagnosis by looking at it with the naked eye &, if concerning to them, they will remove it for a biopsy.

75% of patients referred to a dermatologist get a clean bill of health. Those with a dysplastic mole are monitored for a short time. Dysplastic moles look dodgy but they are benign. However, they have the ability to turn cancerous if left in-situ so they always have to be removed. Patients with dysplastic moles tend to have a lot of moles on their body (100+) so that's why the dermatologist monitors them to ensure none of the others may be dysplastic.

What are the chances it could have spread? Well that depends on the depth of the melanoma. Anything less than 1mm in depth has a 5% chance of spreading. Deeper than that then the % gets higher. However, remember that melanoma is unpredictable. I left mine for a year and it was 0.7mm deep when removed. Yay - I was 95% chance of being cured. Except 13 years later it appeared in the lymph nodes of my groin & pelvis. So at some point before removal a cell had broken away, travelled through my lymphatic system and lodged in 2 nodes. It sat for 13 years before making itself known (we don't know why it waited that long) so I turned out to be in the 5% that spread! However, my bad luck has changed and I'm still here, fit, healthy & with no evidence of melanoma (our version of remission) 11 years later! Also, I have the BRAF gene that 50% of melanoma patients have - this gene means we have more treatment options available to us but the melanoma is more aggressive! Err, not with me as I'm still OK after 11 years! So that is how unpredictable melanoma is I'm afraid.

All that being said, there is still a 75% chance your mole is nothing to worry about but don't panic if the GP refers you & the dermatologist wants it removing. You will be in good hands and the treatments now available are showing great promise. Good luck and please let us know how you get on,

Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient)