Skin cancer can occur in all types of people, irrespective of their skin tone. There are different types and forms of skin cancer, and each of them comes with its own share of warning signs and symptoms. However, the symptoms certainly aggravate with the stage of cancer. This article talks about the early signs and stages of skin cancer. Listed below are the symptoms according to each type of skin cancer.

Basal cell carcinoma

• Waxy or pearly bump
• Brown or skin-colored flat scar-like abrasion
• Scabbing or bleeding sore, which heals, but can be found again.

Squamous cell carcinoma

• Red nodule, which is primarily firm in appearance
• Flat abrasion with a crusted or a scaly surface.

Melanoma

• Large brown spots along with a few darker speckles in the affected area
• Mole, which continually changes its size, color, or feel
• Mole, which weirdly starts bleeding
• An abrasion with non-uniform portions and borders, which appear blue, pink, blue-black, red, or white
• A painful lesion, which either burns or itches
• Dark abrasions on the fingertips, soles, toes, or palms
• Lesions in the mucous membrane or the lining of the nose, anus, mouth, or vagina.

Merkel cell carcinoma

• Formation of shiny and firm nodules under the skin or in the hair follicles.

Kaposi sarcoma

• Purple or red patches on the mucous membranes or the skin.

Sebaceous gland carcinoma

• Formation of painless or hard nodules.

Staging of skin cancer

Basal and Squamous cell carcinoma: Usually, these two types of cancer don’t spread across the different body parts. In a few rare cases, the lymph node of a person might be removed to test if cancer has spread. This is known as metastasis. Other tests, too, might be conducted to find the stage of skin cancer, such as imaging scans, X-rays of the chest, and blood tests.

Staging of Melanoma and Markel cell carcinoma: In both Markel cell and melanoma cancer, doctors assign the staging via the TNM method. So, in this, the doctors perform the scans and other diagnostic tests to get answers to a few questions, such as:

• Tumor (T): Under this, the doctor will try to determine how large the tumor is, followed by the location of the tumor.
• Node (N): There’ll be an analysis of whether the tumor has made its way to the lymph nodes.
• Metastasis (M): There’s an analysis as to whether or not cancer has aggravated and spread across the different body parts.

Together these results will help in assigning the stage of cancer. There are 5 stages, from stage 0 to stage IV.

Depending on the extent and spread of the disease, the stages would be assigned as stage 0 where the cancer has not spread yet. In stage I there is growth of the cells without a spread to the different areas. Stage II is similar to stage I plus a higher degree of risk factors, stage III being the spread of cancer to the nearby areas, and lastly, stage IV being the spread of cancer to the distant organs.