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Skin Cancer and Your Feet

The next time you clip your toenails, take a closer look at the rest of your feet. It could save your life.

Routine self-examinations of the feet are an important way to find skin cancer early. The earlier it is discovered, the easier it is to cure. Fifty percent of the people who learn they have melanoma of the foot die within five years because the cancer had already spread throughout their body by the time it was diagnosed.

Nearly 60,000 people will learn they have melanoma this year. It’s not known how many of those cases will involve the foot, but more than 8,100 melanoma patients will die… nearly one death every hour. If melanoma is detected in its earliest stages, 92 percent of patients surpass the five-year milestone.

Unlike many other types of cancer, melanoma strikes people of all age groups. Caucasians are 10 times more likely to develop melanoma than other races. But studies suggest more than half of melanoma cases in African Americans involve the foot, where late diagnosis leads to a higher death rate. Routine self-exams of the foot increase the likelihood of noticing suspicious moles, freckles or other spots.

Foot and ankle surgeons recommend focusing on the three most common areas for foot melanoma: the soles, between the toes, and around or under the toenails. Melanoma can develop anywhere on the body including areas that receive little sun exposure, such as the feet and ankles. If a mole, freckle or spot starts to change over the course of a month and becomes asymmetrical or changes its border, color, diameter or elevation, see a doctor immediately. Those are the most common signs of melanoma.

For more information, contact Dr. Joel Brook, DPM or Dr. David Northcutt, DPM at 972-566-7474 or visit www.FootPhysicians.com.

Additional melanoma-related resources include:

• FootPhysicians.com: Malignant melanoma of the foot 
• 60-second podcast with Neil Campbell, DPM, FACFAS
• Abstract of 2003 Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery, Survival of Patients With Primary Pedal Melanoma 
• American Cancer Society: Cancer Facts & Figures 2007 
• National Institutes of Health: What You Need to Know About Melanoma  
• National Cancer Institute: SEER Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results