Melanoma stages
When a patient is diagnosed with melanoma, the doctor will want to do further tests to find out the stage the cancer has reached. Staging is important because it helps doctors decide on the best treatment, and it gives a guide to the patient’s likely outlook.
The staging of melanoma measures the thickness of the tumor, whether cancer has spread to the lymph nodes , and whether it has spread to other parts of the body. It also records whether or not the tumor is ulcerated. The stages range from Stage 0 (early melanoma that is only in the outer layer of the skin) to Stage 4 (advanced melanoma that has spread). These stages are based on the TNM cancer staging system
You can find information about all the different melanoma skin cancer stages using the menu on the left.
Melanoma thickness and ulceration
Doctors describe the thickness of a melanoma using a system called the Breslow scale. This simply measures how far down the melanoma has grown from the skin surface, expressed in millimeters. It is often called the Breslow depth. The thicker the tumor, the greater the chances that cancer cells may have broken away and spread.
It is also important to know whether or not the melanoma is ulcerated. It is described as ulcerated if the top layer of skin above the melanoma is broken when seen under a microscope. Ulceration is often not visible to the naked eye. An ulcerated melanoma is more likely to have spread than a non-ulcerated one.
