On October 12th, 2016, Fox9 ran a story featuring Dr. Lydia Turnbull and her daughter Lainey. Lainey was barely two years old when she was diagnosed with skin cancer, which came as a surprise to her mom, one of our board certified dermatologists. Click here to view the video story.

About Pediatric Melanoma

Because it is so rare, pediatric melanomas can be misdiagnosed or missed altogether. If you have a concern about a spot on your child’s skin that is not going away, visit a board-certified dermatologist who is trained in the specific diagnosis of skin diseases.

Your child’s skin should be evaluated by a board-certified dermatologist if you see any area with one of the following features:

• A bump that itches and bleeds
• A spot that looks like an unusual wart – sometimes non-pigmented or with a pinkish color
• An amelanotic lesion – a lump on the skin that isn’t dark or black (like many adult melanomas)
• A mole that becomes nodular – very bumpy and sticking out far from the rest of the skin
• A lesion that presents as a nodule, or lump, especially one that has been growing rapidly
• Moles that look strange or large – especially a mole that looks different from your child’s other moles or has more than one color