Man’s ‘bump on head’ turns out to be sign of skin cancer
Watch: World's first skin cancer drug being tested in UK patients
A man has revealed how his “bump on the head” turned out to be a sign of potentially deadly skin cancer.
Steve Young, 52, from Stevenage, was shocked to discover the bump on the top of his head, he'd had for around a decade, was actually a melanoma - the most deadly form of skin cancer.
He is now part of a groundbreaking new trial led by University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) involving a Moderna mRNA anti-cancer jab combined with MSD’s immunotherapy drug Keytruda.
Young, who had the melanoma growth cut out of his scalp last August, is one of the first patients to try the jab, which is designed to help his immune system recognise and wipe out any remaining cancerous cells and hopefully means his cancer will not return.
The music teacher first spotted the bump on his head around 10 years ago.
"One of my best friends is a retired GP and he did look at it a couple of times over the years, but didn't think it was anything to worry about," Young explains.
"And then lockdown happened and so sort of two years went by where I didn’t see him or sort of see anyone else.
"But then I really started to notice it at the end of 2022. The bump just felt bigger and I was more aware of it, so I asked my friend to look at it again.
"He said ‘I’m not happy with that, I think something’s changed, you need to get it checked’.”
Though Young's GP didn't seem concerned, he referred him to a dermatologist, but the appointment wasn't for another 10 months and while he was willing to wait a girlfriend urged him to get it checked more urgently.
Having visited a private mole check clinic, he was called the following day and told the best case scenario was that the lump was a basal cell carcinoma skin cancer and, at worst, melanoma.
“I had this feeling in my stomach that something really big had changed in my life," Young says of hearing the news.
Following a fast-track referral for suspected cancer, Young saw an NHS dermatologist, who also didn't seem too concerned.
“The dermatologist said, ‘we’ll get you booked in and we’ll get it removed, we’ll just chop it out’, so I didn’t really think much about that," he explains.
“I just thought it was going to be a just a little shaving off the top.
“When I actually asked to look (during the operation), the surgeon showed me what he’d cut out and it was a really large part of my head.
“But he said, ‘This doesn’t look like anything to me’.
“So I came away from that operation with seven stitches in my head, thinking it was all over. I thought it was all over.”
Two weeks later, Mr Young was called back in and was told to bring somebody with him.
"They told me that it was a 4.1mm nodular melanoma," he says.
“Any melanoma over 0.8mm they consider dangerous, so I knew I was potentially in trouble.
“I literally spent two weeks just thinking ‘this is it’," he continues.
"My dad died of emphysema when he was 57 and I actually thought ‘I’m going to die younger than my dad’.”
When he was told about the trial Young said it “really triggered my geek radar”.
“It really piqued my interest," he explains. "As soon as they mentioned this mRNA technology that was being used to potentially fight cancer, I was just like, ‘it sounds fascinating’ and I still feel the same. I’m really, really excited."
Phase 2 data, published in December, found that people with serious high-risk melanomas who received the jab alongside MSD’s immunotherapy Keytruda were almost half (49%) as likely to die or have their cancer come back after three years than those who were given only Keytruda.
“I feel privileged to be involved in a such an important trial,” Young continues.
“This is my best chance at stopping the cancer in its tracks.”
Skin cancer signs and symptoms
Early detection
Finding skin cancer early saves lives. FACT. "Melanoma detected and removed early is almost always curable," says consultant dermatologist Dr Anjali Mahto previously told Yahoo UK. "If caught late, there is a much higher chance of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body. The 5-year survival rate is around 95% for early, stage 1, disease compared to about 16% for late, stage 4, disease."
How to examine your moles
Most dermatologists recommend skin self-exam on a monthly basis.The acronym ABCDE can be extremely helpful in evaluating moles. If a mole shows any of these features, it warrants review by a GP or dermatologist to exclude melanoma.
Asymmetry: one half of the mole is different to the other
Border: irregular, scalloped or poorly defined edge
Colour: uneven colour or variable colours within a mole
Diameter: the mole is bigger than 6mm in size
Evolving: the mole is changing in its size, shape or colour
Other signs to look out for include any new moles, a mole that looks significantly different to the others, or any skin lesion that bleeds or fails to heal.
Additional reporting PA.
Read more on skin cancer
World's first skin cancer drug being tested in UK patients (ITN)
A complete guide to sun protection and SPFs, after Hugh Jackman reveals new skin cancer scare (Yahoo Life UK, 7-min read)
Fashion vlogger and skin cancer survivor urges people to be careful in the sun (The Argus, 3-min read)
