Cancer: Tumor Types and ABCDE’s of Melanoma
Overview
There are important, key differences between benign and cancerous tumors. Benign tumors have well-defined borders, divide less rapidly, and have more regular tissue compared to cancerous tumors which have irregular borders, divide rapidly, and have undifferentiated tissue. Benign tumors are named after the tissue from which they develop. Cancerous tumors are characterized by rapid abnormal cell division and the ability to metastasize or spread to other tissues. A Patient with a pigmented skin lesion can be evaluated for melanoma, a type of skin cancer, by utilizing the “ABCDE” criteria as follows: Asymmetry, Borders (irregular), Color (varying), Diameter (larger than 6mm), and Evolution (changing shape, size, or color).
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- explain the differences between a benign and malignant tumor.
- utilize the ABCDE guideline to evaluate a pigmented skin lesion.
Video Review
Watch the 2 playlist videos: Pathophysiology: Benign and Cancerous Tumors and ABCDE Rule for early detection of Melanoma Skin Cancer (6 minutes total)
Activities
Question Sets
Normal skin anatomy & histology
Metastatic melanoma
Chapter Attributions
This chapter by Elisabeth Kehrli and Anil Kapoor is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Media Attributions
Pathophysiology: Benign and Cancerous Tumors by DrBruce Forciea is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
ABCDE Rule for early detection of Melanoma Skin Cancer #cancer – Dr. Rajdeep Mysore| Doctors’ Circle by Doctors’ Circle is licensed under the Standard YouTube license.
Interactive Activity Attributions
The interactive activities in this chapter are from Pathology by Jennifer Kong; Helen Dyck; and Zoë Soon, and are licensed under a CC BY NC 4.0 license.