Where else in the body does melanoma generally spread?

Where else in the body does melanoma generally spread?

Harry Saperstein, MD, FAAD (Dermatologist, Clinical Assoc. Professor, Medicine, Private Practice and UCLA) gives expert video advice on: What is a "lentigo maligna melanoma"?; What is an "acral lentiginous melanoma"?; What is "nodular melanoma"? and more...

Malignant melanoma is generally localized to the skin. It's under those circumstances when we remove it that there is a one-hundred percent cure. However, in certain cases when the melanoma cells have invaded deeper into the dermis, it has access to the lymphatics and to the blood vessels and can spread to other organs. Some of the organs that it can spread to and the most likely are to the regional or draining lymph nodes. That is something that can be both palpable and felt when it does so or it could be investigated by a very special surgical technique called a sentinel lymph node biopsy. Another place where the cells may be lodged is in the skin close to the original melanoma on the way to those regional lymph nodes. When melanoma does have access though to the body in general it can metastasize to skin in distant sites, as well as to the lungs, the brain, and some of the other visceral organs as well.