Cancerwise

The first time I had cancer, I was in my late 20s. What I thought was a persistent zit on my nose turned out to be basal cell carcinoma. I had a Mohs procedure and reconstructive surgery locally to treat it. 

The second time was in 2018, when I was diagnosed with stage III anal cancer, after a series of false starts and misdiagnoses. Again, I got treated locally. So, by my mid-50s, I felt like I was pretty familiar with both cancer...

Moles are common growths on the skin. Moles are benign, which means they’re not cancerous. But when melanocytes, the cells that make up moles, turn cancerous, we call that melanoma.

Melanomas can develop within a mole you’ve had for a long time or show up as a new mole. In both cases, the mole can look unusual; it doesn’t look like your other moles or is changing and/or growing in an unusual way.

Your dermatologist may find...