How treatable is nail cancer?

How treatable is nail cancer? How treatable is nail cancer?, Is cancer of the nail curable?, How long can you live with nail cancer?, Does nail cancer spread fast?, What does Stage 1 nail melanoma look like?

How treatable is nail cancer?

Not only will your doctor remove the nail growth, but they can also help stop melanoma from spreading to other parts of the body. Early diagnosis is essential to the successful treatment of subungual melanoma. It's estimated that there is an average 5-year survival rate of 16 to 80 percent .

Is cancer of the nail curable?

Not only will your doctor remove the nail growth, but they can also help stop melanoma from spreading to other parts of the body. Early diagnosis is essential to the successful treatment of subungual melanoma. It's estimated that there is an average 5-year survival rate of 16 to 80 percent .

How long can you live with nail cancer?

The good news is that when found early, melanoma — even on the nails — is highly treatable. The best way to find skin cancer on your nails early, when it's most treatable, is to know what to look for and regularly check your nails.

Does nail cancer spread fast?

The survival rates can get lower depending on how advanced the condition is when diagnosed and treated. If subungual melanoma is diagnosed at its final stage, or Stage IV, the survival rate is 15% to 20% at five years and 10% to 15% at 10 years.


What does Stage 1 nail melanoma look like?

Subungual melanoma is a type of skin cancer that develops beneath the nails. Melanomas are particularly serious because they can quickly spread throughout the body.

How rare is nail cancer?

Subungual melanoma presents as brown-black discolorations of the nail bed. It can present as either a streak of pigment or irregular pigmentation. The discoloration can progress to thickening, splitting, or destruction of the nail with pain and inflammation.

Is nail cancer always a line?

Subungual melanoma or melanotic whitlow is a relatively rare disease with a reported incidence between 0.7% and 3.5% of all melanoma cases in the general population. [1] Despite the significant improvement in the diagnosis of cutaneous melanomas, the diagnosis of subungual melanoma still remains difficult.

How aggressive is nail melanoma?

The main symptom is melanonychia, or a pigmented vertical streak on the nail. Some people have likened it to a line drawn by a Sharpie. That doesn't mean it's always automatically worrisome because such streaks are much more common in patients with darker skin, Patel noted.


When is melanoma too late?

Subungual Melanoma

These cancers are often associated with trauma, and therefore are often diagnosed at a late stage of disease. Subungual melanomas can be aggressive, but can have a good prognosis when caught early.


How does nail cancer start?

Once a tumor has spread to distant body sites such as organs, it is considered a stage IV melanoma, with an estimated five-year survival rate of only 18 percent in the U.S. These survival figures are improving every year because of new treatments (some therapies are keeping as much as 40 percent of stage IV patients ...

What does a cancerous nail look like?

Unlike other cancers that begin on your skin's surface, nail cancer begins in cells called melanocytes. Melanocytes produce melanin and give your skin its color. When these cells are activated, melanin production rises (called hyperpigmentation) and creates the vertical stripe that appears under your nail.

Is a black line on nail always melanoma?

Symptoms of a cancerous toenail may include brown-black discolorations of the nail bed, dark skin next to the nail, nail thickening, splitting nails, nail separating from the nail bed, bump or nodule under the nail, and destruction of the nail with pain and inflammation.

What happens if nail cancer goes untreated?

A black line on the nail could be normal, such as when it is just a color variation. Other possible causes range from injury or taking certain medications to various health conditions like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and melanoma.

Can you have nail melanoma for years?

Prognosis for melanoma on the nail

Like other forms of melanoma, subungual melanoma can metastasize (spread) to other parts of the body if left untreated.


How treatable is nail melanoma?

What is subungual melanoma? A subungual melanoma is a skin cancer that form in the finger or toe nailbeds. “It's a pretty rare subtype. However because of that it could be missed and could go on for years without being recognized,” Dr.