Can you have melanoma for 5 years and not know?

An invasive melanoma will spread and grow quickly. By contrast, a lentigo maligna melanoma tends to develop much slower. But you can’t generalize from type alone. Genetic factors influence how quickly cancer spreads into surrounding tissues, and those vary from one person to the next.

Can melanoma spread years later?

Those who have had melanoma are at greater risk for developing another melanoma. It can return in the same spot or elsewhere on your body, even 10 years after initial treatment. Some cancer cells may remain inside your body that screening tests can’t detect. If these cells grow into a tumor, it’s known as a recurrence.

Does melanoma run in the family?

Around 10\% of all people with melanoma have a family history of the disease. The increased risk might be because of a shared family lifestyle of frequent sun exposure, a family tendency to have fair skin, certain gene changes (mutations) that run in a family, or a combination of these factors.

Can you inherit a gene that causes melanoma?

Familial melanoma is a genetic or inherited condition. This means that the risk of melanoma can be passed from generation to generation in a family. To date, 2 genes have been primarily linked to familial melanoma; they are called CDKN2A and CDK4.

Has anyone survived melanoma 4?

According to the American Cancer Society , the 5-year survival rate for stage 4 melanoma is 15–20 percent. This means that an estimated 15–20 percent of people with stage 4 melanoma will be alive 5 years after diagnosis. Many different factors influence an individual’s chance of survival.

Does melanoma always return?

Melanoma is most likely to return within the first 5 years of treatment. If you remain melanoma free for 10 years, it’s less likely that the melanoma will return. But it’s not impossible. Studies show that melanoma can return 10, 15, and even 25 years after the first treatment.

How likely are you to get melanoma again?

The chance or risk that melanoma will recur after treatment of the first melanoma is grouped into the following categories: Low risk – less than 20\% risk of recurrence. Intermediate risk – 20–50\% risk of recurrence. High risk – greater than 50\% risk of recurrence.

Can a mole I’ve had for years become cancerous?

They can change or even disappear over the years, and very rarely can become skin cancers. Some research suggests that having more than 50 common moles may increase one’s risk of melanoma.

What are symptoms of melanoma Besides moles?

Other melanoma warning signs may include:

• Sores that don’t heal.
• Pigment, redness or swelling that spreads outside the border of a spot to the surrounding skin.
• Itchiness, tenderness or pain.
• Changes in texture, or scales, oozing or bleeding from an existing mole.

Why is melanoma passed down?

The genetic factors are usually inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern , which means one copy of the altered gene in each cell is sufficient to increase the risk of developing melanoma. When melanoma occurs as part of a genetic syndrome, the risk of melanoma follows the inheritance pattern of the syndrome.