How melanoma is actually found
What the warning signs are, how to check your own skin properly, what happens at a real dermatology appointment, and what the current crop of AI tools can and cannot do. Every claim here is traced to the body that published it.
Why detection is the whole ballgame
Melanoma is, in the American Cancer Society’s words, “much less common than some other types of skin cancer” but “more dangerous because it’s much more likely to spread to other parts of the body if not found and treated early.” What makes it unusual is how sharply the outcome depends on when it is found.
That gap, between a melanoma caught in the skin and one caught after it has traveled, is the reason any of this matters. About 77% of melanomas are found while still localized. The work of detection is making that number higher.
Start here
Warning signs
The ABCDE criteria in the dermatologists’ own words, the “ugly duckling” rule that often works better, and the places melanoma hides in darker skin.
Read →Checking your own skin
The five-step method, how often to do it, and a photography routine that lets you compare month to month.
Read →What a real screening involves
What happens in the room, what a dermatoscope is for, what total body photography costs, and why the USPSTF still says the evidence is insufficient.
Read →How a diagnosis is made
From suspicious spot to biopsy to pathology report: the four biopsy types, why one is preferred, and what Breslow thickness means.
Read →AI tools, honestly assessed
What the FDA has authorized, how consumer apps performed when researchers tested them, and why the FTC has already prosecuted this category once.
Read →Finding care
How to verify board certification, what to ask when you book, what it costs, and what to do when the next appointment is four months out.
Read →Software that analyzes an image of a lesion to say whether it is malignant is a regulated medical device, and the consumer versions that skipped that step were prosecuted by the Federal Trade Commission in 2015. Nothing on this site assesses your skin. What the current tools can and cannot do is covered in full on the AI page.
Who publishes this
DetectMelanoma.com is an independent project, registered in September 2011 alongside MelaScan.com with the intention of building a computer-assisted detection tool. That product has not been built, for reasons the AI page explains at length. What came of the research is this site: a straight explanation of how detection actually works. More about the project and its editorial rules →
Sources
- American Cancer Society, Key Statistics for Melanoma Skin Cancer, 2026 estimates.
- American Cancer Society, What Is Melanoma Skin Cancer?
- National Cancer Institute SEER, Cancer Stat Facts: Melanoma of the Skin. Five-year relative survival by stage, SEER 21 excluding Illinois, 2016-2022.
- Federal Trade Commission, FTC Cracks Down on Marketers of “Melanoma Detection” Apps, February 23, 2015.