Typically, you expect skin cancer to show up on places that often see exposure to sunlight, such as your face, your forehead and your hands. However, if your doctor or dermatologist only looks in those areas, they could miss cancer entirely when it shows up in an unexpected location.
For instance, one woman wound up with cancer on the sole of her foot. It was melanoma. She was perplexed as to how it had grown there, but medical professionals pointed out that it’s not just sun exposure that leads to melanoma and other types of cancer. Factors that may play a role include genetic predisposition, heavy drinking, environmental pollutants, immune deficiencies, medical organ transplants that make use of drugs to suppress the immune system, and viral skin and body infections like HPV (human papillomavirus) or HIV.
Experts also pointed out that there are skin cancers that usually take place with no regard to the amount of sun exposure a person has endured. They are mucosal melanoma and acral lentiginous melanoma. They can show up on the feet, the palms, in the mouth, in the nasal passages and sinuses, under the fingernails, or on the genitals. Many of these areas see very little sun, but that does not mean they don’t need to get checked for skin cancer.
Did you have cancer that a doctor missed through negligence or carelessness? These types of doctor errors can be fatal, as cancer continues to spread until it becomes terminal. Whether or not that is the case, make sure you know if you have a right to financial compensation.