Almost two years after my husband and I moved to the U. S, I received the most difficult news that I could imagine at that moment in my life, a diagnosis with Melanoma A type of cancer that arises in melanocytes, the cells that produce melanin. Melanoma occurs most often in the skin but may also develop in the eye or the lining of the nose, mouth, or genitals.
At that time I was 27 years old, just married, starting a new chapter in our lives, in a new country with a lot of expectations ahead in my mind except for a Cancer A general term for more than different diseases that involve the uncontrolled growth and division of abnormal cells.
These cells form collections called tumors that can destroy surrounding normal tissue and spread throughout the body.
Everything started 5 years prior to the diagnosis, when I discover an atypical Mole A pigmented skin growth formed primarily by a cluster of melanocytes and surrounding supportive tissue. The scientific name for a mole is a melanocytic nevus. Moles usually appear as tan, brown, or flesh-colored spots on the skin.
I stayed with the mass and a year later I felt that it was growing and changing a little bit, one day it started to hurt me, so I decided to visit the oncologist again to check it out. They decided to remove the mass and send it to the pathologist. The morning of Christmas Eve I received the worst news that I expected in my life, I had malignant melanoma. Days later, I had my first PET Scan A diagnostic test that produces images of the body by detecting radiation emitted from a radioactive substance that is administered to the patient.
They removed 14 lymph nodes from my neck and all of them were clear of cancer. I remember that day as if it was today, for sure, that was a good day for me and for my whole family. My doctor and I decided to start a preventive treatment to avoid recurrence with immunotherapy because I had melanoma Stage The extent of a cancer within the body; especially whether the disease has spread from the original site to other parts of the body.
The stage of disease usually correlates with prognosis. The system for staging melanoma has 4 main stages: stages I and II for melanoma confined to the skin; stage III for lymph node involvement; and stage IV for spread of melanoma to other organs. Ipilimumab was the drug that I received after I recovered from Surgery An operation to remove or repair a part of the body or to find out whether disease is present.
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