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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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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