Woman Discovers Rare, Tiny Cancer…Between Her Toes

A small skin irritation can sometimes hide a slightly more serious problem. According to a report from Today, a woman discovered that she had acral lentiginous melanoma after noticing a small itchy spot between her toes.

A spot with a ring, between two toes

The story begins in 2015, but is relayed only today. At that time, Amy Jardon, a 40-year-old American, was relaxing at the end of the day when she felt a sudden itch between her little toe and the one next to it. There, she discovers a small brown spot of a few millimeters, surrounded by a ring, which she qualifies as “Saturn in miniature”.

Nothing to worry about, yet the woman presents her “spot” to her doctor the following week, who still prescribes a biopsy to the forties, in doubt. When the results came back, it was a shock: this small brown spot was acral lentiginous melanoma, a fairly rare skin cancer.

Amy Jardon therefore quickly underwent surgery to excise the cancerous lesion, a difficult decision whose consequences were a little complicated, forcing the young woman to remain seated for several weeks. Her reflex, however, was salutary: Amy Jardon has now resumed a normal, even sporting life (she ran two half-marathons). She has a follow-up with a dermatologist every year.

What is acral lentiginous melanoma?

Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) is a melanoma that develops on the extremities: palms of the hands and soles of the feet or under the nails called acral areas, in the form of a small dark or discolored spot.

The peculiarity of this melanoma is that it develops on areas not exposed to the sun in patients who do not have fair skin. On the other hand, like all melanomas, it can invade the lymph nodes and graft itself into distant organs (lungs, liver, brain, bones, etc.). In fact, due to the areas it affects that are sometimes not very visible (soles of the feet) and its difficulty in recognizing, acrolentiginous melanoma is often diagnosed late at an advanced stage, sometimes already metastatic. The diagnosis of ALM essentially involves biopsy.

The treatment of acro-lentiginous melanoma will depend on the thickness of the melanoma but will involve surgery above all, when the caner is not at the metastatic stage, supplemented by lymph node dissection when these are affected, and sometimes a treatment with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, if metastases are present.

Slide: Skin rashes: when should you consult?