Skin, Hair and Nail Terms

A substance being studied in the treatment of advanced melanoma (a type of skin cancer) and other types of cancer.

A surgical procedure used to remove moles, cysts, skin cancer, and other skin growths using local anesthesia.

A condition that runs in certain families in which at least two members have dysplastic nevi (atypical moles) and have a tendency to develop melanoma.

An inherited condition marked by the following: (1) one or more first- or second-degree relatives (parent, sibling, child, grandparent, grandchild, aunt, or uncle) with malignant melanoma; (2) many…

A change in the heat and electricity passed through the skin by nerves and sweat.

A peptide (short piece of protein) made from the tumor-specific antigen gp100, and used to make vaccines being studied in the treatment of melanoma.

A hair follicle is the tunnel shaped skin structure surrounding a hair root, distinct from the visible hair shaft that extends above the skin surface.

A slow-growing blood cancer named for the fringed look of its cells, marked by a large spleen and low counts across the board.

A rare cancer of melanocytes (cells that produce the pigment melanin) found in the eye.

A drug used to treat skin problems caused by cutaneous T-cell lymphoma that have not gotten better after other treatment.

A soft tissue tumor that begins in a tendon (tough, fibrous, cord-like tissue that connects muscle to bone or to another structure).

Far less common than the everyday skin cancers but responsible for most deaths from them, because it spreads while it is still small.

The earliest recognized stage of melanoma, still trapped in the outer skin layer where no blood or lymph vessels reach.

A cancer vaccine prepared from human melanoma cancer cells.

A technique used to help determine the stage (extent) of melanoma and certain squamous cell cancers.

The commonest cancers in people with pale skin, grouped together by what they are not rather than by what they are.

Ocular melanoma is a rare cancer of the pigment producing cells within the eye, most often arising in the middle layer called the uvea.

The same drug at the same strength acts more strongly here than in a cream, because sealing the skin lets more of it through.

A substance being studied in the treatment of melanoma, liver cancer, and other types of cancer.

A piece of a protein found only on melanoma (a type of skin cancer) cells.