A few weeks ago I saw a pleasant gentleman who requested that I remove a few benign seborrheic keratoses (brown crusty age spots) off his scalp. He had met a younger woman and wanted to look and feel better. While performing the procedure, I had several minutes to ask him about his personal and medical history.
He told me that 15 years ago he had a melanoma that was treated and considered cured. I reminded him that in light of his melanoma, he is at higher risk for developing a second melanoma and for that reason, we would do a full skin exam regardless of him only coming to see me for cosmetic removal of his “maturity spots.”
While doing a thorough skin examination, I noticed an unusual dark growth on his back which biopsy would soon reveal was another melanoma. Thankfully we caught the melanoma early and his prognosis is excellent. This patient is now incredibly grateful; he came in for a minor cosmetic procedure, and we ended up saving his life – made my day.
