The Lesion

If you are working in Skin Cancer Medicine then the first thing you need to learn is how to recognise a significant skin lesion! You need to know all the variants of the common skin cancers such as BCC, SCC and melanoma but you also need to be able to recognise common benign lesions for what they are and benign lesions that may signify an underlying non skin malignancy associated with various syndromes such as Muir Torre. As well as the triumvirate of BCC, SCC and melanoma you will come across lesions such as Merkel cell carcinoma, Atypical fibroxanthoma, Malignant fibrous histiocytoma, Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans and other rarer lesions that you also need to know something about. However common things occur commonly so we will start by looking at the various forms of the common skin cancers and then go over the multiple benign lesions that are found on the skin before ending up with the rarities. There is no easy diagnostic algorithm or mnemonic for diagnosing skin tumours. You just have to be exposed to them such that you recognise them and use your dermatoscope! Look at this YouTube video of the images in Module 1A. You should do this before reading through the text and perhaps again after you have finished the text! To view these videos in high definition you should click the arrow to start then hit pause and change the 360 to 1028 and click the outward facing arrows box next to it to make it full screen. Keep the pause on for a minute to allow enough of the video to download first before pressing play to avoid interuptions when running.Press ESC on your computer to go back out of full screen mode . If you have a slow internet connection it might be better just to view it in the small mode and 360 resolution. The video below is an overview of the first Module in the Skin Cancer College Australasia's Advanced Certificate in Skin Cancer Medicine and Surgery. This video is the overview of Modules 1A-D recorded during the first webinar for Module 1