Understanding skin cancer - symptoms

What are the symptoms?

If you are in a high-risk group for skin cancer or have ever been treated for some form of the disease, you should familiarise yourself with how skin cancers look. Examine your skin from head to toe, ideally every month, using a full-length mirror and hand mirror to check your mouth, nose, scalp, palms, soles, backs of ears, genital area and between the buttocks. Cover every inch of skin and pay special attention to moles and sites of previous skin cancer. If you find a suspicious growth, ask your doctor to examine it.

The general warning signs of skin cancer include:

• Any change in size, colour, shape or texture of a mole or other skin growth
• An open or inflamed skin wound that won't heal

Melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer, may appear as:

• A change in an existing mole
• A small, dark multicoloured spot with irregular borders - either raised or flat - that may bleed and form a scab
• A cluster of shiny, firm dark bumps
• Having a diameter larger than than 6mm (the size of a pencil rubber)

An easy way to remember the signs of melanoma is the ABCDEs of melanoma: 

• Asymmetrical
• Irregular Borders
• Two or more Colours or changes in colour
• Diameter larger than 6mm (the size of a pencil rubber)
• Elevated or Enlarged

Basal cell carcinoma may appear on sun-exposed skin as:

• A pearly or flesh-coloured oval bump with a rolled border, which may develop into a bleeding ulcer.
• A smooth red spot indented in the centre.
• A reddish, brown or bluish black patch of skin on the chest or back.

Squamous cell carcinoma may appear on sun-exposed skin as:

• A firm, reddish wart-like bump that grows gradually.
• A flat spot that becomes a bleeding sore that won't heal.

Seek medical advice if:

• An existing mole changes size, shape, colour or texture; or you develop a very noticeable new mole as an adult.
• A new skin growth or open sore does not heal or disappear in a few weeks.