Question 1

What changes in a mole should you actually worry about?

Accepted Answer

**Change itself** is the signal — a mole that is different from how it was, or different from your other moles, matters more than any single feature in isolation.

**The ABCDE checklist**, which is the standard framing:

**Asymmetry** — one half unlike the other.

**Border** — irregular, blurred, notched or ragged rather than smooth.

**Colour** — more than one colour, uneven, or shades of brown, black, red, white or blue within one lesion.

**Diameter** — larger than about 6 mm, though melanoma can be smaller and this is the weakest criterion.

**Evolving** — changing in size, shape, colour, or becoming raised. **This is the most important letter**, and change is the single most useful sign.

**The other signs worth knowing:**

**The ugly duckling sign.** Most people's moles resemble each other. **A lesion that stands out as different from your others is suspicious even if it passes ABCDE** — and this catches cases the checklist misses.

**Itching, bleeding, crusting or a sore that does not heal**, particularly a lesion that bleeds on minor contact.

**A new mole appearing after about 30**, when most moles have already developed.

**A dark streak under a nail** that is not from injury, which can indicate a less common melanoma type.

**Changes on soles, palms, under nails and in less exposed sites**, which are easily missed and are more common presentations in people with darker skin — **where melanoma is rarer but more frequently diagnosed late.**

**Who is at higher risk:** fair skin that burns easily, many moles, atypical moles, previous skin cancer, family history, history of sunburn particularly in childhood, sunbed use, and immunosuppression.

**The other skin cancers** are more common than melanoma and look different — basal cell carcinoma as a pearly or waxy bump or a sore that heals and returns, and squamous cell as a firm scaly or crusted lump.

**What to do:** photograph anything you are unsure about with a ruler for scale; see a GP rather than waiting; and **do not be reassured by a lesion being painless**, since most are.

General information, not medical advice.

Question 2

How is cancer actually diagnosed and staged?

Accepted Answer

Through a sequence that moves from suspicion to tissue, because only examining the cells themselves gives a definitive answer — scans and blood tests can suggest, but they cannot confirm. The usual

Question 3

Why does a bruise change colour as it heals?

Accepted Answer

The colour sequence is your body dismantling the haemoglobin that leaked out of broken blood vessels, and each shade corresponds to a different breakdown product. A bruise forms when blunt impact

Question 4

Can you get a second opinion on the NHS?

Accepted Answer

There is no absolute legal right to a second opinion on the NHS — but requests are commonly accommodated, and knowing how to ask makes a considerable difference. The position. NHS guidance and

Question 5

What actually happens at an eye test, and what does it check for?

Accepted Answer

Far more than whether you need glasses — a sight test is also a health examination, and it detects conditions with no symptoms at a stage where treatment still works. What is actually checked: Visual

Question 6

What is the difference between a symptom, a sign and a syndrome?

Accepted Answer

They describe three different things, and the distinctions are used precisely in medicine even though everyday speech treats them as interchangeable. Symptom. Something the patient experiences and

Question 7

How does a doctor actually reach a diagnosis?

Accepted Answer

Mostly by listening — the history gives the diagnosis in a large majority of cases — followed by examination and, only then, tests to confirm or exclude. The popular image of diagnosis as a puzzle

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