Everyone Healthy Library
Melanoma
Condition / disease reference page from the Everyone Healthy database.
! Seek urgent medical care if warning signs appear
Some health conditions or symptoms can become urgent. Use this page for education, but seek help quickly if warning signs are present.
Get urgent medical care now if there is any severe, sudden, rapidly worsening or worrying symptom, especially:
- chest pain, pressure or pain spreading to the arm, jaw or back
- trouble breathing, blue lips, severe wheeze or choking
- stroke-like symptoms such as face drooping, arm weakness or speech trouble
- collapse, fainting, seizure, confusion or extreme drowsiness
- severe bleeding, black stools, vomiting blood or major injury
- severe allergic reaction, swelling of the face/throat or widespread rash with breathing trouble
- severe abdominal pain, severe headache, stiff neck or sudden vision change
- signs of severe dehydration, sepsis, high fever with worsening illness, or symptoms in a baby/young child that concern you
Connected health information
Explore this condition in a clear order
Condition overview
Attributes
Incidenceis approximately 1 in 6,667 people
Linked signs and symptoms
3Each sign/symptom opens its own page and links back to related conditions.
Linked drugs / medications
3Medication information is educational only. A doctor or pharmacist should advise whether any medicine is appropriate.
Treatments, therapies and supportive options
16Grouped by treatment type. These are educational database links, not personal treatment recommendations. Evidence labels are shown only where stored in the EH database.
Surgery
4Medical therapy
7- ChemotherapyWeakly in Favour(Low Evidence)
- CryosurgeryWeakly in Favour(Low Evidence)
- ExcisionWeakly in Favour(Low Evidence)
- ImmunotherapyWeakly in Favour(Low Evidence)
- Lymph Node ResectionWeakly in Favour(Low Evidence)
- Mohs Micrographic SurgeryWeakly in Favour(Low Evidence)
- Radiation TreatmentWeakly in Favour(Low Evidence)
Alternative and complementary therapies
1Alternative medicine
1Linked diagnostic tests and investigations
2These are pulled from both EH diagnostic-test link tables, including the older large test-link table.
Biological markers/agents
2This visual map shows biological markers/agents reported as increased or decreased with this condition. These are educational relationships only; test results must be interpreted by a qualified clinician because ranges vary by lab, method, age, sex and clinical context.
Often increased
2- Fibrinopeptide A (FPA)Reference range exampleAdult ( > 16y), Female: 0.7–3.1 mg/mL; Adult ( > 16y), Male: 0.35–2.5 mg/mLLinked diagnostic testsFibrinopeptide A (FPA) Action Assay
- Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (Blood hCG)Reference range exampleAdult ( > 16y): 0–5 units/LLinked diagnostic testsBlood Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) Test
Often decreased
0No markers in this group.
Introduction / full article
Melanoma
Efficacy of Alternative and Other Treatments According to GRADE* Ranking:
Flaxseed Oil [6, 7, 8, 9]:
Please note, this management does NOT treat the condition itself. It may mildly help with some of the symptoms, and even then has insufficient evidence to back up this claim at present.
Recommendation: weakly in favor (Evidence shows that flaxseed oil may reduce the formation, growth or spread of melanoma)
Grade of Evidence: low quality of evidence
* www.gradeworkinggroup.org
Summary References
Summary References
2. Bhatia S, Tykodi SS, Thompson JA (2009). "Treatment of Metastatic Melanoma: An Overview"
3. Bastiaannet E, Beukema J, Hoekstra H (2005). "Radiation therapy following lymph node dissection in melanoma patients: treatment, outcome and complications". Cancer Treat Rev 31 (1): 18–26
4. Bene, NI, et al. Mohs micrographic surgery is accurate 95.1% of the time for melanoma in situ: a prospective study of 167 cases Dermatol Surg. 2008 May;34(5):660-4.Cure rate as high as 98% for small melanoma in situ, and as high as 95% noted for lentigo maligna variant of melanona in situ has been reported with Mohs surgery.
5. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec10/ch128/ch128e.html#sec10-ch128-ch128e-1219c
6. Ades T, Alteri R, Gansler T, Yeargin P, "Complete Guide to Complimentary & Alternative Cancer Therapies", American Cancer Society, Atlanta USA, 2009
7. http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/flaxseed
8. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-flaxseed.html
9. http://nccam.nih.gov/health/flaxseed/index.htm