Recurrent Melanoma: Why Does It Keep Coming Back?
Written by TYE Medical on Jul 12th 2023
If you’ve had melanoma, you’re probably aware that it can return. That’s why your doctor strongly suggests regular follow up visits to evaluate and reassess. The sooner you catch recurrent melanoma, the greater the chances of successful treatment. While routine visits for cancer follow up might seem excessive in the first few years, it’s best to take it seriously.
Even if your treatment was successful, melanoma can return regardless of the stage of your original occurrence. Even if you had stage 2 melanoma, it’s possible for it to return. However, the likelihood of recurrence increases with each stage.
Here is what to know about recurrent melanoma and how to live cautiously as a melanoma survivor.
What Is Recurrent Melanoma?
When medical professionals use the phrase “recurrent melanoma”, they’re referring to the reappearance of Melanoma due to cancer cells that have survived in your body since the last treatment. In other words, it’s not the development of “new” cancer but surviving cells from the primary (original) cancer.
Despite their best efforts, doctors can’t always be certain they’ve removed every cancer cell or that every cell has been eliminated through prescribed treatments. Melanoma is notorious for returning after lying dormant and then spreading to other areas of the body. The time between the primary cancer and recurrence can be months or years.
However, it’s possible to have a “new” melanoma that isn’t related to the primary occurrence. A new melanoma isn’t considered recurrent.
What Are the Odds of Recurrence?
If you’ve had melanoma once, the chances of a recurrence from the primary cancer is up to and over 50%. These high statistics are the reason doctors carefully monitor their melanoma survivors. It’s not unusual for melanoma to return.
Melanoma can return to the same place or in a new location 10 years or more after initial treatment. The likelihood of it returning largely depends on the initial stage of your cancer. The higher the stage, the more likely you are to have a recurrence.
Your doctor can let you know your level of risk for recurrence. Although it’s mostly based on the level of your primary cancer, there can be other factors involved. Here are the risk levels:
- Low risk – less than 20% risk of recurrence
- Intermediate risk – 20–50% risk of recurrence
- High risk – greater than 50% risk of recurrence
Melanoma is most likely to return in the first two or three years after initial treatment. Remember that your doctor will not only be looking for recurrent melanoma but also for new occurrences that are unrelated.
What Are the Stages of Melanoma?
Doctors classify melanoma according to four stages:
- Stages 1 and 2 involve the skin only.
- Stage 3 involves skin and lymph nodes.
- Stage 4 involves skin and other organs.
If you have stage one melanoma, your chances for successful treatment can be as high as 90%, which means that catching melanoma early makes a critical difference.
Where Does Melanoma Return?
It’s most common for it to recur at the same location in the same general area. But it can return to an area far from the original location. So if you had melanoma on your arm initially, it could return on your back.
But melanoma isn’t limited to your skin, as you can see from the four stages listed above. It can also appear inside your body, and most often in your lungs, liver, brain, lymph nodes, bone, gastrointestinal tract.
This is why screening for melanoma can be extensive. It’s not a matter of checking one area. Your entire body needs to be evaluated, inside and out.
How Can Melanoma Recur in a Different Place?
Cancer cells spread when they break off from the primary or original melanoma. They could stay where they are or travel to other parts of your body. If your melanoma returns in the same area as before, then cancer cells broke off and remained in the same location. But if it appears elsewhere and the cells are from the primary tumor, then melanoma cells traveled.
Can You Prevent the Return of Melanoma?
Of course, taking preventative steps can help reduce the risk of recurrence, but prevention is not guaranteed. You can reduce the likelihood of melanoma returning in two primary ways:
1. Skin Exams
It’s vital that you perform self-exams monthly while also following up with your dermatologist as often as recommended. The frequency will vary by case. But don’t neglect self-exams as they are often the most effective means of identifying recurrent melanoma. You’re likely to catch something suspicious before your doctor does.
2. Protection from UV Rays
Avoiding the sun at peak hours or using sufficient UV protection in the form of sunscreen or clothing is still effective for preventing melanoma. Guarding your skin can help prevent both new occurrences and recurrences of melanoma and other skin cancers.
These are your two main defenses when it comes to preventing the return of melanoma.
Keys to Surviving Melanoma
Understand that recurrence is very possible, and more so if your primary cancer was in a higher stage. And it won’t necessarily return in the same place, which means that following up with your doctor is necessary for catching recurrence early. Since melanoma can return as internal cancer or skin cancer, routine scans and screenings are vital. But most returning melanoma that appears on the skin is first caught through self-exams. Perform self-exams monthly and protect your skin from harmful UV rays that trigger recurrences and new melanoma.
