If you wait for nodular melanoma to go from flat to pencil eraser height before seeing a doctor, you could be dead a short time later.
Nodular melanoma goes from zero to metastasis in zip speed.
But just what IS the time frame for how fast a nodular melanoma can grow from flat to the height of a pencil eraser?
“Nobody knows; they grow quickly,” says Dr. Janet Prystowsky, board certified dermatologist in New York, NY, with 30-plus years’ experience.
“They can go from non-obvious to obvious in weeks to months.”
The reference to pencil eraser diameter is typically used for the guidelines of examining the skin for signs of melanoma or its risk factors.
Pencil eraser height is a whole new animal, and a killer one at that.
Nodular melanoma is so ruthless that you do NOT want to wait for it to reach the height of a pencil eraser or even one-eighth of that before seeking medical attention.
shutterstock/Leigh Prather
There is no stage zero phase for this kind of skin cancer. It doesn’t sit at an early stage for months on end as does the much more common superficial spreading melanoma.
In the superficial spreading type, it expands in diameter before it starts digging downward.
This can take a few years in some cases. The superficial spreading radial phase gives the patient plenty of time to catch it in a curable stage.
Nodular melanoma can spring out of nowhere and start growing vertically before it spreads laterally, fooling the patient into thinking that the tiny new bump on their skin is “nothing.”
It is commonly pink or red rather than black or dark brown, further tricking the patient into thinking that the new spot is harmless.
But it can also be black or brown, even purple or bluish.
