Hello doctor, My fiance has noticed a small pink lump (probably smaller than a pencil eraser) on the back of her calf. I have attached pictures of the same. She thinks it is only a few months old and may have grown in size to some extent. But she is not sure, and it could have been there longer. It looks like a pimple (or actually two tiny one's side by side) with some reddish outline. It is not painful at all. She does not know about her family history and considers herself medium in terms of skin shade. We are concerned because we read somewhere that the lower leg is the most common spot for a woman to develop a melanoma. We would like to have an opinion on this to know if we should have it checked. Thank you!
Hi. I have seen the pictures (attachment removed to protect patient identity). This is mostly a wart. Melanoma is generally black in color and is very rarely seen in young age. This lesion of hers has mostly no feature of melanoma. Wart occurs due to one of these reasons say pricking, thorn or from other people if the virus gets into your skin. The virus stays there and slowly grows. Also, a wart is infectious, i.e., after touching a wart if you touch anywhere else, you can get a wart there too. So the most important advice is "do not touch at all." Wart has to be removed as early as possible before it spreads much. It can be removed by radio frequency cautery which burns the wart and is removed. Many creams and acids are also there to use, but I consider cautery as the first line of treatment, as chances of recurrence are less with it and the wart is removed in one sitting. I advise her to get it removed by cautery as early as possible.