Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
Moles, known medically as nevi, are clusters of pigmented cells that often appear as small, dark brown spots. However, moles can come in a range of colors and can develop virtually anywhere on your body.
Most moles are harmless, but in rare cases, moles may become cancerous. Monitoring moles and other pigmented patches is an important step in detecting skin cancer, especially malignant melanoma. Not all melanomas develop from pre-existing moles, but many begin in or near a mole or other dark spot on the skin.
- Moles. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/print/sec10/ch127/ch127g.html. Accessed Sept. 4, 2009.
- What you need to know about moles and dysplastic nevi. National Cancer Institute. http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/moles-and-dysplastic-nevi/allpages/print. Accessed Sept. 4, 2009.
- Abbasi NR, et al. Early diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma: Revisiting the ABCD criteria. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2004:292;2771.
- Moles. American Academy of Dermatology. http://www.aad.org/public/publications/pamphlets/common_moles.html. Accessed Sept. 4, 2009.
- Grichnik JM, et al. Benign neoplasias and hyperplasias of melanocytes. In: Wolff K, et al. Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine. 7th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2982281. Accessed Sept. 4, 2009.
- Prevention guidelines. The Skin Cancer Foundation. http://www.skincancer.org/prevention-guidelines.html. Accessed Sept. 5, 2009.
