A 26-year-old has a trendy beauty routine to thank for saving her life after discovering a lump on her neck that turned out to be stage 4 melanoma.
Helen Bailey, a real estate agent from Alabama, was using a spatula-like tool to reduce swelling on her face in a technique called gua sha when she ran the device over a lump on her neck.
He immediately called his doctor.
It grew rapidly, developing from about the size of a piece of gum to a plum. What she didn’t know was that the lump was a warning sign of the 20 tumors that had invaded her body, all arising from a cancerous mole on her back that he had removed years before.
But now he was back and more aggressive than ever.
Ms Bailey, now 28, was diagnosed with stage four metastatic melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer with only a 22 per cent chance of survival.
To treat her melanoma, doctors put Helen Bailey through multiple surgeries to remove the tumors and gave her immunotherapy, a rapidly developing field of cancer medicine.
Miss Bailey’s cancer spread from her skin to her lymph nodes, from where it then spread to the rest of her body. She said that she had a tumor in most of her organs.
What followed his diagnosis in the spring of 2022 were months of treatments that left him with a 104-degree fever almost every day, uncontrollable shaking, 20-pound weight loss, rashes, loss of appetite, chronic pain and internal bleeding.
Ms Bailey wrote on her TikTok: “If I hadn’t gone to the doctor when I did, I definitely wouldn’t be here now.”
Now, she urges young people to never ignore new moles and make annual appointments with a dermatologist.
In addition to raising awareness about skin cancer, Bailey urged her hundreds of thousands of TikTok viewers to use sunscreen every day and avoid excessive sun exposure.
She explained in a video: “I didn’t know much about skin cancer or anything… “I feel like the more people know, the more lives we can save.”
Melanoma is a disease of the cells that give color to the skin, called melanocytes. When melanocyte DNA is damaged, such as from excessive sun exposure or severe sunburn, it can mutate, evolve into cancer, and begin to multiply rapidly.
Thirty percent of melanoma cases begin in moles, but there is a small percentage of cases that cannot be traced to a single site. It is possible, and common doctors at the Cleveland Clinic write, that the disease begins in parts of the skin without blemishes.
Seven years before she was diagnosed, Ms Bailey had a cancerous mole removed from her back. Although removing the growth often works to prevent more cancer from developing, sometimes not all of the cancerous tissue is removed and it continues to spread undetected.
In Miss Bailey’s case, the cancer spread from her skin to her lymph nodes, she said on TikTok. From there, she used her lymphatic system to spread throughout her body.
Seven years before she was diagnosed with cancer due to this lump, Ms. Bailey had a cancerous mole removed at the dermatologist’s office.
Miss Bailey was treated with surgery and immunotherapy. She now she is in remission.
A diagnosis of stage 4 melanoma indicates that the cancer has spread from its site of origin to distant parts of the body, such as the brain, liver, or lungs.
An estimated one in 50 Americans will be diagnosed with melanoma at some point in their lives, and approximately 100,640 are projected to be diagnosed with the disease by 2024, according to Melanoma Research Alliance.
The average age of diagnosis is 63 years.
However, melanoma is one of the most common cancers in people under 30 years of age and has been increasing “dramatically” in the last three decades, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
The Clinic said this could be because the ozone layer has thinned in some areas due to climate change, letting in more ultraviolet rays, which mutate the skin.
Only a quarter of people diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma live five years after their diagnosis, according to Melanoma Research Alliance.
Ms Bailey was told her chances of living next year were “pretty slim”. she shared on Instagram.
In her case, the melanoma on her mole turned into 20 tumors that had settled in most of the organs in her body.
Doctors operated on her “many” times to remove the tumors and treated her with immunotherapy, a newly developed treatment that engineers cells in a patient’s body to attack the cancer.
Her diagnosis is part of the reason she is passionate about raising awareness today.
“Early detection through regular skin checks and immediate medical attention are crucial for a better prognosis,” he said.
It is recommended to receive a full-body skin check with a dermatologist once a year so doctors can identify suspicious moles and monitor them, or perform tests to see if they are cancerous.
One of the most common tools that dermatologists recommend to their patients to detect skin cancer is called ABCDE.
A is for asymmetry: is the mole symmetrical on all sides? Melanomas are often uneven and have halves of different sizes and shapes.
B is for border: Does the mole have clear borders? Melanomas are more likely to have irregular or jagged edges.
C is for color: Is the color the same throughout the mole? Melanomas are more likely to have multiple shades.
D is for diameter: How big is the mole? They should typically be the size of a pencil tip, and melanomas tend to be larger.
Lastly, E is for evolve: has the mole changed over time? Most benign moles stay the same year after year, but melanomas can grow in size and shape and change color over time.
Despite her initially bleak prognosis, in February 2023, Ms Bailey was told her doctors could no longer detect signs of cancer in her body.
He still gets regular scans every three months to stay alert. For now, she will “continue treatment to ensure all the cancer is gone and stays that way.” I still can’t believe she was able to get to this point.”
