Something Wasn’t Right
Maybe you pointed it out. A mole that looked different. A spot that had changed. It may have grown, or darkened, or taken on more than one color. Maybe it had a ragged edge. Maybe it itched, bled, or scabbed over and would not heal. You had a feeling something was off. You may have shown it to a doctor and asked, is this okay?
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Article written by Brendan Lupetin, Esq. Brendan is a managing partner in the law firm of Lupetin & Unatin, a medical malpractice law firm located in Pittsburgh and serving Western Pennsylvania.
Our practice is limited to high-value catastrophic cases because that is where we can do the most for our clients and for patient safety.
And maybe they told you not to worry. They said it was just a mole, an age spot, or a harmless growth. Maybe they glanced at it and moved on. Maybe they said to keep an eye on it and come back if it changed, even though it already had. Maybe they never did a biopsy. Maybe a biopsy was done but the result was misread. So you waited. And the whole time, a melanoma was growing and, perhaps, beginning to spread.
By the time someone took it seriously, the cancer may have advanced. What could have been a simple removal early on may have become a fight for your life. Maybe you faced major surgery, lymph node removal, or treatment for cancer that had spread. Maybe you are reading this because someone you love did not survive. And you cannot stop asking: why didn’t they catch this sooner?
That question matters. Melanoma is highly curable when it is caught early. When the diagnosis is delayed, the cancer can spread, and the outcome can change from a near-certain cure to something far worse. This article explains the warning signs that a malignant melanoma was missed. It explains the serious harm a delay can cause. And it explains what you can do next. If any of this sounds like your story, Lupetin & Unatin is here to help.
What Malignant Melanoma Is, in Plain Terms
Melanoma is a cancer that starts in the cells that give your skin its color. It is the most serious form of skin cancer. Unlike more common skin cancers that tend to stay put, melanoma can spread to the lymph nodes and then to organs throughout the body. That is what makes it so dangerous.
But here is the hopeful part, and the reason a delay is so costly. When melanoma is caught early, it is one of the most treatable cancers there is. As the Skin Cancer Foundation reports, the five-year survival rate is 99% when melanoma is caught early, but it drops to 74% once it reaches the lymph nodes and 35% once it spreads to distant organs.
Those numbers tell the whole story. Early melanoma is often cured with a simple skin surgery. Late melanoma can be deadly. The difference between the two is often a matter of months, and of whether a doctor took a changing mole seriously. That is why a timely diagnosis matters so much.
Why Malignant Melanoma Gets Missed
Melanoma can be missed for a simple reason. Early on, it can look like an ordinary mole. Most spots on the skin are harmless, so a busy provider may glance at a suspicious one and assume it is nothing. The danger is in the small but real chance that the “harmless” mole is not harmless at all.
Doctors and dermatologists are trained to know the warning signs and to act on them. As the Cleveland Clinic explains, the ABCDEs of melanoma describe how to spot a cancerous mole, and any change in size, shape, color, or height should be checked by a provider right away. When a mole shows these signs, the standard of care is usually to biopsy it or refer the patient to a specialist, not to wait and watch. You can read more about how these failures happen on our delayed diagnosis and treatment of melanoma page.
Here are the common reasons a melanoma gets missed:
- A changing or unusual mole was called harmless without a biopsy.
- A skin exam was rushed or never done, even for a high-risk patient.
- A suspicious spot was watched for months instead of being tested.
- A biopsy was done but the sample was read incorrectly by the lab.
- A patient’s concern about a spot was brushed off.
- A referral to a dermatologist was never made or was delayed.
The ABCDEs: Warning Signs Doctors Are Supposed to Act On
Doctors use a simple guide called the ABCDEs to spot melanoma. These are the same signs a careful provider should act on. If your mole showed one or more of these and it was not tested, that is worth a closer look.
- A is for Asymmetry. One half of the mole does not match the other half.
- B is for Border. The edges are ragged, blurred, notched, or uneven.
- C is for Color. The mole has more than one color, or uneven shades of brown, black, red, white, or blue.
- D is for Diameter. The mole is larger than a pencil eraser, about 6 millimeters, though melanomas can be smaller.
- E is for Evolving. The mole is changing in size, shape, or color, or has new symptoms like itching, bleeding, or crusting.
There is one more sign that matters: the “ugly duckling.” This is a mole that simply looks different from all your other moles. Even a spot that does not fully fit the ABCDEs can be melanoma if it stands out from the rest. A careful doctor should take any of these seriously. When these signs were present and no one tested the mole, the diagnosis may have been missed.
Risk Factors Doctors Are Supposed to Consider
Some people are at much higher risk of melanoma. These risk factors should make a doctor more careful, more thorough in a skin exam, and quicker to test a suspicious spot.
Common risk factors include:
- A history of bad sunburns or heavy sun exposure. Especially blistering sunburns earlier in life.
- Tanning bed use. This raises melanoma risk, particularly when started young.
- Fair skin, light eyes, and light or red hair. These traits carry higher risk.
- Many moles or unusual moles. People with lots of moles, or atypical ones, are at higher risk.
- A personal or family history of melanoma or skin cancer. This is an important warning sign.
- A weakened immune system. From illness or from medicines that suppress immunity.
- Older age, though melanoma also strikes younger people. It is one of the more common cancers in young adults.
Here is why this matters for your case. A high-risk patient deserves a careful, full skin exam and quick action on any suspicious spot. When a patient has these risk factors, points out a changing mole, and is still sent away without a biopsy or referral, that can be a failure to meet the standard of care.
Signs Your Malignant Melanoma Was Missed
Below are the red flags. If you recognize several of these, it may be worth a closer look at the care that was given.
A Changing Mole Was Called Harmless
The single most important warning sign of melanoma is a mole that is changing. If you reported a mole that was growing, darkening, or changing shape, and a doctor called it harmless without testing it, that is a major red flag.
No Biopsy Was Done on a Suspicious Spot
A biopsy, taking a small sample to test, is the only sure way to tell if a mole is melanoma. When a spot looks suspicious, the standard of care is usually to biopsy it. If a clearly suspicious mole was never biopsied, that gap could be a failure in your care.
You Were Told to “Watch and Wait”
Watching a clearly suspicious, changing mole for months, instead of testing it, can let a curable melanoma spread. If your care was a series of “let’s keep an eye on it” while the spot kept changing, that delay can be serious.
Your Biopsy Result Was Misread
Sometimes a biopsy is done, but the lab or pathologist reads it wrong and calls a melanoma harmless. This is a known and serious error. If your spot was tested, called benign, and later turned out to be melanoma, the original reading should be reviewed.
Your Skin Exam Was Rushed or Skipped
For higher-risk patients, a thorough skin exam matters. Melanoma can hide on the back, the scalp, the soles of the feet, between the toes, or other spots that are easy to miss. If your exam was rushed or never done, a melanoma could have gone unnoticed.
Your Concern Was Brushed Off
You know your own skin. If you raised a concern about a spot and were dismissed without a real evaluation, and that spot turned out to be melanoma, the question is whether a careful doctor should have listened and tested it.
You Suffered Lasting Harm
Sometimes the clearest sign that something went wrong is the outcome itself. A melanoma caught early is often cured with minor surgery. When the diagnosis comes late, the disease can spread and the treatment becomes far harder. The next section covers the serious harm a delay can cause.
The Serious Harm a Melanoma Delay Can Cause
When melanoma is not caught early, it can grow deeper and spread. The longer the delay, the more harm it does. Here are the serious outcomes a missed or delayed diagnosis can cause.
Spread to the lymph nodes. As melanoma advances, it often spreads first to nearby lymph nodes. This means more surgery, including removal of lymph nodes, and a lower chance of cure.
Spread to distant organs. Late melanoma can spread to the lungs, liver, brain, bones, and other organs. Once it reaches distant organs, survival drops sharply.
More extensive surgery. An early melanoma may need only a small removal. A delayed one can require wide surgery, skin grafts, and removal of lymph nodes.
Harsh systemic treatment. Advanced melanoma is treated with powerful drugs, immunotherapy, or radiation. These treatments are hard on the body and are not always successful.
Permanent scarring and disfigurement. Larger surgeries leave larger scars, sometimes in visible places like the face.
Lasting physical effects. Lymph node removal can cause lymphedema, a painful, lasting swelling of a limb. Other treatments carry their own lasting side effects.
Recurrence and lifelong monitoring. Even after treatment, advanced melanoma can come back. Survivors often face years of scans, tests, and worry.
Death. This is the gravest risk. Melanoma that spreads can be fatal, when an early diagnosis might have led to a cure. If you lost a loved one this way, your family may have a wrongful death claim.
Emotional trauma. Facing advanced cancer that might have been caught early, or losing a loved one to it, leaves deep wounds. Many people and families struggle with anxiety, depression, and grief for years.
Many of these outcomes share one thing in common. They often trace back to time that was lost. Time when the melanoma could have been caught and cured.
When a Missed Diagnosis Becomes Malpractice
Not every bad outcome is malpractice. Doctors do not have to be perfect, and not every mole can be tested. But doctors do have to meet a basic standard. That standard is the level of care a careful doctor would have given in the same situation.
To have a malpractice case, a few things usually need to be true. First, there was a doctor-patient relationship. Second, the care fell below the accepted standard. Third, that failure caused real harm. Fourth, the harm led to losses, such as medical bills, lost income, the loss of a loved one, or pain and suffering.
Melanoma cases often turn on a few key questions. Did the mole show clear warning signs? Was the patient high-risk? Was a biopsy or referral made when it should have been? Was a biopsy misread? And did the delay allow the cancer to spread? Because early melanoma is so curable, a delay that lets it spread can be the heart of a strong case. Proving it takes work, records, and the right medical experts. That is where Lupetin & Unatin comes in.
What You Should Do Now
If you think your melanoma, or that of a loved one, was missed, take these steps.
Get the medical records. You have a right to them. They hold the timeline of what happened and when. In a melanoma case, the records may include photos, exam notes, and biopsy reports that tell the story.
If a biopsy was done, ask about the slides. The actual tissue slides can be reviewed again by another expert. A misread biopsy is a known cause of delayed melanoma diagnosis.
Write down what you remember. Note when you first saw the spot and how it changed. Note when and to whom you reported it. Note what the doctor said and did. Memory fades, so do this soon.
Do not wait too long to ask questions. Every state has a deadline for filing a malpractice claim. In Pennsylvania, that deadline is usually two years, though the discovery rule can affect when the clock starts in a missed-cancer case. These rules are tricky, so acting early protects your rights.
Talk to a lawyer who knows these cases. Melanoma claims are complex. They need medical experts, including dermatologists and pathologists, and a clear way to show how the delay changed the outcome. A general lawyer may not be the right fit. A firm focused on medical malpractice will know what to look for.
How Lupetin & Unatin Can Help
We are Lupetin & Unatin. We are a Pittsburgh medical malpractice firm. We focus on serious injury and death from medical errors. Missed and delayed cancer diagnosis cases, including melanoma, are part of our work. We know how these errors happen. We know how doctors and labs defend them. And we know how to hold them accountable.
We have handled catastrophic delayed-diagnosis and wrongful death cases. We understand how a curable cancer can turn deadly when the warning signs are missed and the months slip by. We know the medicine, and we know how to prove what a careful doctor should have done.
We take a small number of cases so we can give each one real attention. We work on contingency. That means you pay nothing up front. You pay nothing unless we win. There is no risk in finding out if you have a case.
You deserve answers. You deserve to know if this suffering or loss could have been prevented. A short conversation can tell you a lot.
Frequently Asked Questions
You may not know for sure on your own. That is normal. The answer is usually in the medical records. We look at what the mole looked like, what you reported, what the doctor did, whether a biopsy was done, and whether any biopsy was read correctly. Not every mole can be tested, but the law asks what a careful doctor would have done with the same information. A careful review tells us whether the care fell below the standard. That review costs you nothing.
In most cases, the deadline in Pennsylvania is two years. In a missed-cancer case, the discovery rule may affect when the clock starts, since you may not learn of the error until later. For a wrongful death claim, the period generally runs from the date of death. These rules are tricky. The safest move is to call us soon so we can protect your rights before time runs out.
Nothing up front. We work on contingency. That means we only get paid if we win money for you. There is no fee to talk with us and no fee to review your case. If we take your case and do not win, you owe us no attorney fee. This lets you seek justice without financial risk.
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Reach Out Today
If any part of this article sounds like your story, please contact us. Tell us what happened. We will listen. We will review the records. We will tell you honestly whether we think there is a case.
With melanoma, the difference between an early catch and a late one can be the difference between a cure and a tragedy. If a doctor or lab failed you or someone you love, you have the right to seek justice. Let us help you find out what really happened.