You’ve most likely coated the essential issues you are able to do to cut back your pores and skin most cancers danger: Put on sunscreen, keep away from tanning beds, and get any suspicious moles checked out by a physician. However regardless of how diligent chances are you’ll attempt to be about defending each weak inch of your pores and skin, there’s one a part of the physique you seemingly overlook: your nails.

However wait, does that even depend as pores and skin? Nail melanoma really begins within the nail matrix (the pores and skin tissue beneath the nail plate, or the arduous half that you just may chunk or paint with polish), Ife J. Rodney, MD, board-certified dermatologist and founding director of Everlasting Dermatology Aesthetics in Fulton, Maryland, tells SELF. “This space accommodates melanin-producing melanocytes that give your nails their pure pigment,” Dr. Rodney explains. “However when these cells multiply uncontrollably, it will possibly result in melanoma, the deadliest type of pores and skin most cancers.”

Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM), which encompasses all pores and skin cancers on the palms of your arms, soles of your toes, and beneath or across the nails, accounts for under 2% to three% of all melanoma diagnoses. When individuals discuss pores and skin most cancers within the nails particularly, likelihood is they’re referring to an excellent rarer subtype of ALM known as subungual melanoma. (Sub- means beneath, and -ungual means nail.)

The excellent news is, this kind of melanoma is very treatable while you catch it early, Dr. Rodney says. Nevertheless it can be difficult to identify, for the reason that signs (which don’t resemble a sketchy-looking mole) are sometimes solely seen in later levels of the illness. So we requested two dermatologists to interrupt down every part it’s essential to know—together with the right way to test your fingers and toes for main warning indicators.

What causes nail most cancers, precisely?

Surprisingly, extreme solar publicity isn’t considered the principle explanation for pores and skin most cancers within the nails, Michael Cameron, MD, founding father of Cameron Dermatology and assistant medical professor on the Mount Sinai Division of Dermatology in New York Metropolis, tells SELF. “It’s probably as a result of genetics,” he explains. “The extent to which different doable danger components, like ultraviolet (UV) publicity or repeated [physical] trauma, contribute is unclear.” (Analysis helps that individuals who have a first-degree relative with ALM have the next probability of creating it themselves.)

Proof additionally exhibits that subungual melanoma is the commonest variant of malignant melanoma amongst Asians, Hispanics, and African People (it represents a whopping 75% of melanomas recognized in Black individuals). Dr. Cameron explains that this doesn’t essentially imply race or ethnicity alone will improve the danger: “It could simply point out that folks in these teams don’t get different, extra widespread melanomas as typically as fairer-skinned individuals do.” (Price noting: It’s a complete fantasy that you just shouldn’t fear about pores and skin most cancers when you’ve got a deeper complexion. Whereas it’s true that Black individuals are much less more likely to get melanoma generally, they’ve a a lot increased danger of dying from the illness than people with lighter pores and skin, and a number of other complicated components may contribute to this racial disparity).