What does Merkel carcinoma look like?
Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare, aggressive skin cancer. It appears as a painless, flesh-colored or bluish-red nodule growing on your skin. Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare type of skin cancer that usually appears as a flesh-colored or bluish-red nodule, often on your face, head or neck.
Can Merkel cell carcinoma look like a wart?
MCC arising on the arm. The tumor has some features of a wart, but on closer examination the skin surface is quite smooth and blood vessels are enlarged and visible, features that would not be very common for a wart.
How fast does Merkel cell carcinoma grow?
A lesion of metastatic MCC may appear as a 1-3 cm, flesh-colored to red-purple bump that feels firm, is deeper compared to the primary lesion, and grows rapidly over a period of 2-4 weeks.
Is Merkel cell carcinoma itchy?
Does Merkel cell carcinoma hurt? While MCC is often painless, it can feel sore and tender. Some people say the growth itches. Many people who develop MCC are otherwise healthy.
Where does Merkel cell carcinoma start?
Merkel cell carcinoma starts most often in areas of skin exposed to the sun, especially the head and neck, as well as the arms, legs, and trunk.
What does Merkel look like?
Characteristically starts in a sun-exposed area (of the head, neck, arms or legs) in whites 60-80 years of age as a firm, painless, shiny lump that can be red, pink, or blue in color and vary in size from less than a quarter of an inch (a half cm) to more than two inches (5 cm) in diameter.
Does Merkel cell carcinoma bleed easily?
It often first appears as a single pink, red, or purple shiny bump that usually doesn’t hurt. Sometimes the skin on the top of the tumor breaks open and bleeds. These tumors grow quickly. They might spread as new lumps in the nearby skin.
How is Merkel cell carcinoma detected?
A CT scan of the chest and abdomen may be used to check for primary small cell lung cancer, or to find Merkel cell carcinoma that has spread. A CT scan of the head and neck may also be used to find Merkel cell carcinoma that has spread to the lymph nodes.
What kind of skin cancer is on my wrist?
The reddish, scaly, and slightly raised spot on this patient’s wrist is Merkel cell carcinoma, which could easily have been mistaken for a sore. Any spot on your skin that is growing, bleeding, or changing in any way could be a skin cancer.
Is the tumor on my arm a wart?
MCC arising on the arm. The tumor has some features of a wart, but on closer examination the skin surface is quite smooth and blood vessels are enlarged and visible, features that would not be very common for a wart. The tumor developed in an area of extensive sun damage.
What does skin cancer look like on the head?
Skin cancer can also look like a sore that heals and returns. While Merkel cell carcinoma often looks like a dome-shaped growth or slightly raised and scaly patch, it can appear on the skin in diverse ways, as did the Merkel cell carcinoma on this man’s head.
What does an arrow on a MCC biopsy mean?
Arrow indicates a firm, enlarged, elevated lymph node (ink shows edges of firmness noted on physical exam), into which MCC tumor cells had spread. Darker area on upper right side of MCC lesion represents site of biopsy. MCC arising on the fifth digit of the left hand.