I understand it’s still a cancer but to me it doesn’t seem the same as cancers that affect certain specific organs. Why is it so deadly? I understand how liver, lung, or colon cancer can kill so quickly, but your skin doesn’t necessarily hold the same level of delicacy as other organs.
You can cut or scrape skin regularly and it heals very well, but if you cut or scrape your colon or rectum that’s a major medical emergency. How is melanoma considered one of the deadliest cancers in that context?
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Cancer, more-or-less by definition, grows uncontrolledly. So it doesn’t really matter how important an organ it starts in; if untreated, it’ll eventually spread throughout your body and destroy *all* your organs.
it depends on the stage of the cancer. stage 4 is when it receeds below the skin. once it hits your veins/bloodstream youre in trouble. it spreads very easily to other organs if its not caught early. of course, any cancer left untreated will spread to other parts of the body.
Cancer has two forms, a localized tumor and metastatic disease. When the cancer gets out of the tumor, the metastatic form has individual cancer cells that can float around in the bloodstream. If they find a place to latch on, they start a new tumor growing there. If you think of a distinct tumor form, like a breast tumor, when it gets loose (called metastasizing) you can end up with a breast cancer tumor growing in your liver. While that’s not the same as a liver tumor, it can still cause more serious problems.
The problem with the skin as an organ is that it’s a lot thinner than a lumpy organ like a breast. As a result, it’s quicker to grow to the boundary and get loose. Once it gets lose, there is no more concept of cutting it out.
I think the simplest answer is that melanoma tends to grow downward into tissue (squamous cell and basal cell skin cancers usually stay confined to the upper layers of tissue, and rarely metastasize) and it is relatively quick to metastasize as it reaches down to blood and other vessels. Metastasis means the melanoma spreads through the body, often to your brain, liver, bone etc. Cancer cells eventually circulate and damage the organs wherever the malignant cells grow. Damage to essential organs begins the cascade to death.
Exposure to sunlight and tanning beds is responsible for most melanomas, but genetics can play a role. Your skin can heal when you cut or scrape your skin because those are superficial and acute injuries. But it’s harder for your body to repair the damage done by chronic sun or tanning bed exposure. This is mostly due to one type of ultraviolet light coming from the sun or bed. The light damages cells in your skin faster than your body can heal them and this accumulated damage makes cells in your skin more likely to turn malignant.
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