Hi I think they remove it to check if it is cancerous. Fingers crossed it won't be. My doctor has just made an urgent referral for me as I have an itchy mole on my back. I'm waiting for my appointment to come through and praying it's not cancerous.

Hi,

It sounds as though they think the mole is dysplastic (atypical/pre-cancerous). These type of moles look suspicious and when looked at with a dermascope will show a change in the cell structure. If the cells are evolving in shape & perhaps multiplying, they may be pre-cancerous so they like to remove the mole before it becomes malignant. People with dysplastic moles tend to have a lot of moles (over 100) and are at risk of having another dysplastic mole in their lifetime so they will show the patient what changes to look out for in the future. They will biopsy the mole and if the mole is mildly dysplastic (has just started to evolve) they will discharge the patient after surgery but if it's severely dysplastic (has already evolved a lot before actually becoming cancerous) they may want to remove a further safe margin of tissue around the area & then monitor the patient for a short time.

I hope this helps. Good luck and please let us know how your daughter gets on,

Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient since 2009)