Melanoma is the most seri­ous form of skin can­cer — it can spread very quick­ly and can become life threatening.

However, if it is found ear­ly, it is generally treat­able, and in most cases beat­able.

Here's some important information to help you know what to look for when you’re check­ing your skin.

The most obvi­ous warn­ing signs of melanoma are changes to your skin or moles.

Specifically, it is important how they look or feel.

Ear­ly warn­ing signs can go unno­ticed if you do not check your skin reg­u­lar­ly. These changes are not always accom­pa­nied by pain.

Aus­tralia has one of the high­est rates of melanoma in the world!

What more reason do you need to check your skin ear­ly and often?

It's essentail to have a pro­fes­sion­al skin check every year.

So what do you need to look out for? Read on to find out.

Moles – what’s nor­mal?
Most moles appear when we’re chil­dren or young adults. In gen­er­al, nor­mal moles are:

• Even­ly-coloured brown, tan or black.
• Flat or raised on the skin.
• Round or oval and sym­met­ri­cal in appear­ance.
• Most often, less than 6 mil­lime­tres across.

Your skin is con­stant­ly chang­ing.

Moles usu­al­ly increase in num­ber dur­ing child­hood and ado­les­cence, reach peak in your 20s, then reduce with age. They can also increase in num­bers with sun expo­sure and grow dur­ing preg­nan­cy. If you notice a new mole that appears lat­er in life, make sure you get it checked out. 

Check for changes, ear­ly and often.
The most impor­tant warn­ing signs of melanoma are any new spots on the skin or ones that change.

If you notice any vari­a­tions such as a change in size, shape or colour, it could sug­gest a melanoma may be devel­op­ing.

If you have a high num­ber of moles (espe­cial­ly if you have more than 100 moles), you have a high­er risk of devel­op­ing melanoma and should have your skin and moles screened regularly.

Be aware of the ABCDE rule.

The ABCDE rule is a sim­ple guide to check­ing for the ear­ly signs of melanoma.

Look out for the following:

• Asym­me­try – the shape of one half doesn’t match the other.
• Bor­der – the edges are often ragged, notched, blurred, or irreg­u­lar in out­line; the pig­ment may spread into the sur­round­ing skin.
• Colour – the colour is uneven. Shades of black, brown, and tan may be present. Areas of white, grey, red, pink, or blue also may be seen.
• Diam­e­ter – size changes and usu­al­ly increas­es. Typ­i­cal­ly, melanomas are at least 6mm in diam­e­ter (the diam­e­ter of a pencil).
• Evolv­ing – look for new moles or changes to any moles.

Know the EFG rule
The EFG rule is anoth­er guide that recog­nis­es a type of melanoma known as nodu­lar melanoma. This can grow and become life-threat­en­ing very quick­ly, so ear­ly detec­tion and treat­ment is vital. Check your skin reg­u­lar­ly,or better, book a full body skin check or a spot check.

Be aware of:

• Ele­vat­ed  — moles that are raised on the skin.
• Firm  — moles that are firm to touch.
• Grow­ing  — moles that grow and change very rapid­ly.

What does nodu­lar melanoma look like?
Nodu­lar melanoma isn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly dark or coloured, but the obvious sign is that it is raised, often sym­met­ri­cal, firm to touch, and most impor­tant­ly, is changing/​growing pro­gres­sive­ly.

In the ear­ly stages, the change might just be a sense of change rather than vis­i­ble. It may be itchy, or just feels different.

This type of melanoma can affect any­one, but is gen­er­al­ly much more com­mon in men over 50. Nodu­lar melanoma is serious because it grows fast, it can go deep very quick­ly (with­in a few months), which is why it’s so dan­ger­ous and needs ear­ly diag­no­sis and removal.

Anth­er important thing to consider is melanoma is serious and doesn’t always fit the ABCDE or EFG rules.

Keep a look out for any mole or skin lesion (abnor­mal spot) that is:

• dif­fer­ent from oth­ers.
• chang­ing in shape, size or colour.
• a new skin lesion.
• itch­es or bleeds.

It is very important that you bring it to the atten­tion of your doc­tor imme­di­ate­ly and accu­rate­ly describ­e the symp­toms and your rea­son for concern.

How can you spot melanoma your­self?
Learn how to check your skin reg­u­lar­ly and get to know your skin well. It’s a good idea to do a self-check at least every three months. 

The begin­ning of each sea­son is an easy way to remem­ber. Use a small mir­ror to check all areas, freck­les and moles. If pos­si­ble, ask some­one to check the areas you can’t see, such as your neck, scalp, back, under your arms, the backs of your legs, and the soles of your feet.

If you spot any changes or you’re con­cerned about a mole or sunspot, it’s always best to get it checked out by a skin specialist.