A Manicurist Discovered The Deadliest Form Of Skin Cancer On Her Client’s Thumb Nail

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Skin cancer comes in many forms and sometimes it’s difficult to point them out. Either a birthmark or a spot on your skin can be skin cancer without us even knowing it. However, this heroic manicurist discovered one of the deadliest forms on her client’s finger nail.

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As one heroic manicurist is speaking out about, there might be something sinister lurking under your sick nail art. As reported by The Sun, beauty salon worker Jean Skinner spotted a dark vertical line, not unlike a thin stripe of polish, running right down the center of her client’s thumb nail.

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According to a Facebook post by Skinner, the woman asked for a polish dark enough to cover the annoying line, which other salons had told her was nothing to worry about — a lack of calcium or a harmless blood blister. Skinner recognized the line as a potential melanoma — the deadliest form of skin cancer.

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“This is melanoma!!!” Skinner wrote. “I did not want to frighten her but I told her she needed to see her doctor immediately! She called me today to tell me that yes it was a very aggressive melanoma that has already spread to her lymph nodes!! Her prognosis is not good!”

Skinner is now urging people to pay attention to abnormalities in their nail beds, even though, she points out, “odd changes in your nails can very likely be nothing to worry about.”

The Facebook post has been widely shared, with people commenting on how scary the warning is.

But according to official NHS guidelines, “dark stripes running down the nails (linear melanonychia) are fairly common in black people over 20 years of age, and in most cases it's perfectly normal.”

They do advise, however, that dark stripes on nails shouldn't be ignored because they could in fact be a sign of subungal melanoma, a form of skin cancer that affects the nail bed. If you find a dark line, you should see your doctor to check it isn’t melanoma.

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Dr Walayat Hussain, a spokesman for the British Association of Dermatologist, said the picture was a “spot on” illustration of subungual melanoma.

He said: “Nail melanoma can occur, it is quite a rare form of melanoma.

“It is an isolated, pigmented streak going through one of your nails.

“But it is important to realise there are a lot of other causes of that pigmentation but if it is just in one nail that is a sign that something is going on.

“It can be quite common in Afro-Caribbean patients and Asian patients to have much finer lines, but it won’t just be in one nail – if you look closely it will actually be in all their fingernails and their toenails.

“Certain prescribed medication can also cause this discolouration as well, like blood pressure tablets.

“If it is just in one nail though then it is definitely worth getting checked out by a doctor.”

Dr Hussain said the nail cancer occurs in the same way any melanoma occurs in the body.

He said: “We have these melanin producing cells called melanocytes, which the colour in your skin, and they can occur anywhere.

“Melanocytes are present throughout your skin your hair and your nails.

“It is like having a mole in the nail, it is the same process as a mole anywhere else on the body it just happens to be occurring where the nail sits.”