Our Dr. Ken Alanen appeared on the Marc & Mandy show recently to talk about mole mapping — a valuable procedure for the early detection of melanoma.

Check out the video above, or read the text of the interview below.

Mandy:

Your skin health is the most important thing, and I’m excited. I have Dr. Ken from Derm.ca, and we’re talking about skin cancer and prevention. So, tell me a little bit about mole mapping. What is it?

Dr. Ken Alanen:

Mole mapping is an elegant technology that’s been engineered to assist in the early diagnosis of melanoma. That is the most fatal, by far and away, of the skin cancers that are there. It has unfortunate propensity to affect young people, and if it’s not found on time, it’s often fatal. Mole mapping is based on the premise that when moles change over time, changing moles are sometimes concerning. So if a mole looks slightly unusual, but if there are no other concerning features and if we could say with confidence that the mole has not changed, then it need not be removed. There’s an expression that’s often used in surgical oncology, and that’s, “When in doubt, cut it out.” If we’re not certain that a mole is innocent biologically, and if it shows concerning features during the visit, then we err on the side of caution, which means removal.

Mandy:

Okay. So what are some characteristics you’re looking for when you’re doing mole mapping with your patients?

Dr. Ken Alanen:

When I’m looking at a mole, I can look at four parameters at a fixed point in time. I can look at the A, the B, the C, and the D. A is an asymmetrical mole, B is border irregularity, C is color irregularity, and D is diameter of the mole. So, is it five or six millimeters? So practically every single melanoma will violate A, B, C, and D. But the single most important criterion, one that we view as more important than A, than B, than C, than D, all combined, is E, evolution. Has the mole evolved over time?

Dr. Ken Alanen:

What I will often tell patients is that if you line up 100 different melanoma cancers from 100 different patients, they all have a tendency to change over time. So when I’m looking at a spot in the clinic, if it’s equivocal, if I’m not sure, the one parameter I cannot assess is, “What did it look like six months prior?” So we live in a world of before and after pictures in cosmetic medicine, and that’s decisively true in mole mapping as well. So if the mole has not changed to the computer’s eye and when I’m looking at the patient live in the flesh, I can compare and contrast. And if the mole has not changed, much more often than not, then it’s fine. Then it need not be cut out of the person.

Mandy:

So, checking up is a very good thing to do.

Dr. Ken Alanen:

Most definitely, yes.

Mandy:

Perfect. Well, thank you so much for this advice, Dr.Ken.

Dr. Ken Alanen:

I appreciate the time.

See Mole Mapping for additional information.

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