Question about Actinic Keratosis

jim816

I had a very similar growth on my hand, I kept pointing it out to my Dermatologist for a year or more. It was a crusty, warty looking white growth. They finally did a biopsy early this year, it was a Squamous Cell Carcinoma, they removed it with a currette as the cancer itself was growing toward the outside.

Sometimes, it is difficult to understand the Dermatologist's reason for waiting to remove a growth, my experience has been that sometimes they do take a watch and wait attitude. I go in for a skin check every six months so nothing gets out of control.

Serena66

Hello Rose,
I'm new to the board and just saw your post. Did you ever get a final diagnosis on your situation? ab I have something (only larger, about 1/2 inch) on my finger that sounds exactly as you described. For about a year you could not even see it, it was just a "hard" area, same color as surrounding skin. I was told, it's keratosis, nothing to worry about so I ignored it, not knowing there were several types.Then many months later it got irritated with hot water from hand washing and would peel off and heel back to the same looking thing where you could not really see anything.

Now maybe 1 /2 years since I first saw it, the top layer came off again and it is healing to look like what you described where the red raw part is staying only at the border, and the middle is flesh/whitish. I am really scared and hope 1 1/2 to 2 years is not too long to where this thing has maybe turned cancerous and spread. I assume that if the nearest lymph nodes (at elbow area?) are not tender so far I am ok? Getting appt as soon as I can but difficult to get. I did grow up in the sun and got too much, so this is scary.
Thanks for any thoughts!