Skin cancer is an abnormal growth of the skin cells caused by damage to the skin, usually from repeated exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. ¹ In Singapore,  skin cancer is the sixth most common cancer for males and seventh most common cancer for females.²

The three main types of skin cancer are; ¹

• Melanoma
• Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)
• Basal cell carcinoma (BCC)

Squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma are both non-melanoma skin cancers. Melanomas are among the deadliest cancers, accounting for 75 per cent of all skin cancer deaths.³ Less common kinds of skin cancer include Kaposi’s sarcoma, Merkel cell carcinoma and sebaceous gland carcinoma.³

Melanoma stages

Melanoma is separated into stages from 0 to IV, which focuses on the depth (or thickness) of the melanoma and if it has spread to the lymph nodes and other organs: ⁵

• Stage 0 = less than 0.1mm
• Stage I = less than 2mm
• Stage II = greater than 2mm
• Stage III = the melanoma has spread to the lymph nodes
• Stage IV = spread to other areas of the body

Non-melanoma stages

If a skin cancer is suspected, your doctor may perform a biopsy under local anaesthetic to determine the stage of the cancer.¹

They may also use the TNM system to stage the cancer, TNM stands for: ⁶

• Tumour – the degree to which the tumour has affected other tissue.
• Node – is a measure of whether lymph nodes have been affected.
• Metastasis – the degree to which the cancer has spread to other organs of the body.