Normal mole or skin cancer: How to tell the difference

One of the red flags you need to watch out for are irreg­u­lar­ly shaped moles. Most nor­mal moles are small, brown, and round. So if you spot a mole that is irreg­u­lar­ly shaped and appears to change in size or shape over time, this is an indi­ca­tion that it could be a prob­lem. Your next course of action is to make an appoint­ment with a GP or skin cancer clinics detec­tion cen­tre for a skin check.

Most prob­lem moles are asym­met­ri­cal or lop­sided where­as nor­mal, non-can­cer­ous moles tend to appear as a per­fect cir­cle. And because asym­me­try in moles is one of the ear­li­est warn­ing signs of skin can­cer, you need to speak to your GP or skin can­cer detec­tion ser­vice to have it checked out.

Like­wise, pay close atten­tion to the diam­e­ter of the mole you’re con­cerned about. A mole that could be an ear­ly warn­ing sign of skin can­cer will usu­al­ly be larg­er than 6 mm in size, or about ¹⁄₄ inch. They can be small­er, but they don’t usu­al­ly stay that way and will grow over time.

Final­ly, you need to under­stand that a sin­gle exam­i­na­tion is not enough to write-off a mole for good.

One of the major indi­ca­tions of can­cer­ous moles has to do with how they evolve. They con­tin­ue to grow, change shape, change colour, and are gen­er­al­ly more pro­nounced over time. If you have a prob­lem mole that falls into that cat­e­go­ry, get your­self checked at a GP or skin can­cer detec­tion service.

Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, nor­mal moles are sta­ble — they’ll look the same a year from now that they do today. A mole that gets larg­er or changes colour or has bor­ders that grow more irreg­u­lar are all prop­er­ties that you should keep a close care­ful watch for.

Detect­ing skin can­cer ear­ly is the key, so it pays to do reg­u­lar self-checks. If you notice some­thing out of the ordi­nary, you need to get it looked at.

Since 1997 MoleMap has been a trust­ed provider of advanced melanoma detec­tion and sur­veil­lance ser­vices in Aus­tralia. Using the most thor­ough and trust­ed skin can­cer detec­tion tech­nol­o­gy in the world, our reg­is­tered nurs­es who are accred­it­ed melanog­ra­phers pro­vide skin check, and mole check. Our team of high­ly trained and inde­pen­dent der­ma­tol­o­gists, who work remote­ly, are experts at diag­nos­ing ear­ly stage melanoma.

If you have a mole of con­cern or you’re wor­ried it might be skin can­cer, don’t hes­i­tate to leave us a mes­sage, and we will get in touch with you right away.