Horrifying time-lapse video shows how nail ‘blemish’ can morph into killer stage 4 cancer
A HORRIFYING time-lapse video reveals how a tiny brown line on your finger can morph into stage four cancer.
Though it’s rare for skin cancer – including melanoma – to develop under and around your fingernails and toenails, it does happen.
It may look like a brown or black band on your nail, which can be easily mistaken for a bruise.
Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK, with about 16,000 people diagnosed with it each year.
Melanoma UK warns that cases are rising too.
This type of cancer that grows under the nails is called subungual melonoma.
Aside from a line, the disease can also look like irregular mark under the nail.
It is most likely to show up on the thumb or big toe of your dominant hand or foot. However, the discoloration could develop on any one of your nails.
Your nail splitting down the middle is yet another possible sign of melanoma. As could a bump under the nail that doesn’t go away.
Put together by Dr Christopher Chang, a consultant at Fauquier ENT, the disturbing time lapse used AI to show how early stage nail melonoma can develop into late stage, also called stage four cancer.
As time passes, the brown line gets bigger, until it covers the entire nail.
As the disease moves into its later stage, the nail begins to turn black, crack and the skin underneath develops ulcers, bleeds and looks infected.
Catching melanoma skin cancer early can make big difference to how treatable it is, so it’s important you get new or changing marks on your nails or skin checked out by a GP as soon as you notice them.
Laura Harker, a screening nurse at The MOLE Clinic, advised you also keep an eye on other less obvious areas, such as your hairline, behind the ears, the soles of your feet and your arms.
There are two main types of skin cancer.
Non-melanoma skin cancers are diagnosed a combined 147,000 times a year in the UK, while melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, is diagnosed 16,000 times a year.
GP Dr Philippa Kaye previously told Sun Health: “It’s important to know your body and become familiar with your moles and skin and what they look like, so you will recognise if something changes,”
“See a doctor if you notice a mole is changing, which can be in colour, size, appearance but also in sensation – so if a mole is bleeding, crusty or becomes sore or itchy.”
WHEN SHOULD I SEE A GP?
Some melanomas develop from existing moles.
But the rest grow on what was previously normal skin.
You should see if you notice a:
- New abnormal mole
- Mole that seems to be growing or changing
- Change to a previously normal patch of skin
- A mole that is itching or painful
- A mole that is bleeding or becoming crusty
- A mole that looks inflamed
- Unusual mark or lump on your skin that lasts longer than a few weeks – especially if you are immunocompromised
- A dark area or line under a nail that is not due to an injury
To assess whether a mole or mark has changed or needs a doctor’s attention, try using the ABCDE checklist.
This includes Asymmetry of a mole, the Border of the mole becoming irregular, having two or more Colours, a Diameter of over 6mm or a mole that is constantly Evolving.
Check out MORE shocking time-lapse videos
This video reveals how a tiny white spot on your tongue can morph into tongue cancer over the years.
Tongue cancer is a rare type of head and neck cancer, the symptoms of which might be mistaken for mouth ulcers.
Another time lapse video charts woman’s weight loss transformation.
Meanwhile, this alarming clip shows how a tiny dark patch of skin can morph into killer melanoma cancer over a decade.
And this video shows how doctors reconstructed man’s face after he was savaged by a dog.