In fact, the chance of a mole or a so-called melanocytic nevus, especially if it grows later in life, to develop malignant changes can be said to be extremely small. However, on the contrary, melanoma may not look much different from ordinary moles in the early stage, and most people only notice the moles on the face and exposed parts of the body, but not the changes on the feet and the back of the body, so the time for early diagnosis and treatment is often lost. Like other cancers, if melanoma can be removed at an early stage, it will not cause any harm to the body. However, once it spreads, it is often systemic, and the malignancy of this type of melanoma can be said to be one of the top among many types of cancer. Up to now, physicians have encountered this type of metastatic patients, and even though they have exhausted surgical procedures, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and other methods, they have often watched the patient’s life being taken away by the disease. Many people may feel discouraged when they see this, is there really nothing we can do about it with our current medical level? In fact, as with all malignant tumors, as long as they are detected and treated early, they do not become too difficult to deal with. In the United States, it was discovered decades ago that the rate of melanoma in Caucasians is much higher than in people of color because of the lack of pigment protection. Therefore, some scholars have proposed the slogan ABCD to remind people to enhance self-screening in order to detect the lesions early. The so-called A (asymetry) refers to the asymmetrical shape of pigment spots, B (irregular border) refers to the irregularity of the edges of pigment spots, C (color varigation) refers to the uneven pigmentation of pigment spots, the appearance of light color changes in the original dark spots, or the deepening of color in light patches, may be a bad change, D ( D (daimeter>6mm) too large pigmented spots should also be especially careful. In addition, if a flat spot is suddenly raised, or if inflammatory symptoms such as redness, swelling, pain, or itching occur, or if bleeding begins, it is best to consult a physician immediately for further treatment. In addition, melanoma in Caucasians is different from that of Caucasians in that Caucasians tend to develop melanoma on sunburned areas, while in Caucasians it is on the ends of the extremities, especially the soles of the feet. I often see old men and women from the countryside who at first thought that they were just marks on the soles of their feet that could not be removed, but by the time they were brought to the clinic by their families, they had large black patches or nodules and missed the best time for treatment. Skin cancer is usually found in the elderly, but melanoma can be found in a wide range of age groups, from small children to the elderly. Don’t be like people in the past who thought that it was a precursor to the onset of their career and left it alone, which delayed the time of treatment. Melanoma not only appears on the skin, but also on the nails and mucous membranes. They often appear as dark lines or patches on the nails, sometimes appearing as if the nails have been bruised and blackened, but melanoma often extends beyond the nails to the surrounding skin. Another characteristic of melanoma that develops next to the nail is that one-third of them do not appear to be pigmented clinically, that is, they do not look black, and sometimes even experienced physicians are fooled into thinking that they are just granulation tissue formed by inflammation of the nail. As for melanoma in the mucous membrane, it is likely that the patient may not be able to observe the tumor easily or the physician may not be alerted to the tumor because he or she is less exposed to it. If in doubt, you may want to alert your physician or seek a second opinion from another physician or a dermatologist. When a patient comes to the clinic with a suspected melanoma, the physician will usually want the patient to undergo a biopsy in addition to a clinical examination of the lesion. Some patients are often hesitant to undergo the examination because they believe that these tumors will spread faster due to the biopsy procedure, not knowing that melanoma itself is a tumor that can spread easily, even without biopsy, and that biopsy involves the future treatment plan of the entire disease. In recent years, although patients in Europe and the United States have increased their awareness of melanoma, if a patient has dozens of moles, it is impossible to cut them down one by one for pathological examination, so physicians have invented the dermatoscope to observe them. The dermatoscope can be used to make a preliminary diagnosis of melanoma, which has a different morphology from that of a benign black tumor in two dimensions. Although dermatoscopy is still not a substitute for pathologic examination, it does provide a convenient channel for clinicians to help in the interpretation. To perform such an examination, a little bit of ultrasound gel is applied to the skin to reduce the refraction of light, and the dermatoscope is applied to the epidermis for observation. In the past, some bleeding on the foot caused by movement or abrasion could easily be mistaken for melanoma, which can be easily distinguished by dermoscopy. In addition, some common moles on the soles of the feet of Oriental people can be easily distinguished from melanoma under dermoscopic observation, so if you have doubts about the moles on the soles of your feet and do not want to undergo surgery, you may want to see a dermatologist for such an examination. Once the diagnosis of melanoma is confirmed, the entire treatment plan should be considered. If the melanoma is only located on the surface of the skin, it can be removed, but if it has invaded deeper layers of the skin, in addition to removing the skin, lymph node dissection should be considered to intercept the cancer cells that have metastasized through the lymphatic system. For those with systemic metastases, further chemotherapy is necessary, but unfortunately, most melanomas do not respond well to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, patients should not be too discouraged, as long as early detection and treatment is done early, the prognosis is still quite good. With the rapid advances in medical technology, immunotherapy and vaccine therapy may become the future stars of melanoma treatment in the future.