Беременная женщина в 5 месяцев диагностирована с меланомой после обнаружения изменений родинки

Alix Robinson was five months pregnant when she asked a friend to look at a mole on her back. Robinson first noticed the spot a couple of years earlier after giving birth to twins. The mole was new, but seemed like a plain brown freckle, and she had stopped monitoring it frequently because it “never looked weird,” she says. But then, it began stealthily evolving, a big warning sign for dermatologists. Robinson’s friend told her the mole had a funny shape with ragged edges and a black center, and urged her to get it checked out. “The changes, I guess, just started happening kind of quickly and not in front of me,” Robinson, 33, who lives in Bloomington, Indiana, tells TODAY.com. “I cannot stress enough that I just 100% at no point thought that this was going to be cancerous.” She wasn’t able to get an appointment with a dermatologist until a couple of months later, at the end of March 2026. A biopsy of the mole revealed a shock diagnosis: malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Robinson would need a wide local excision, a surgery to remove all traces of it along with some surrounding healthy tissue. The melanoma was early stage and hadn’t grown very deep. But test results estimating the likelihood that the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes were borderline, so the expectant mom also opted to undergo a sentinel lymph node biopsy. It would require general anesthesia in her third trimester of pregnancy. Worried about her baby, she recorded her distraught reaction on TikTok. “While scary, it was the only option,” Robinson now says. “My only other option was to wait until after I’d given birth. … (But how) do you take the knowledge that you have cancer and say, ‘Well, I’m going to wait a few more months’? Especially if you don’t know if it’s spreading.” Does Pregnancy Impact Melanoma Risk? Melanoma can begin during pregnancy, but being pregnant doesn’t seem to increase the risk, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Pregnancy alters a woman’s immune system with sophisticated changes that allow her body to tolerate the fetus while maintaining an immune defense, says Dr. Adam Friedman, professor and chair of dermatology at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Since melanoma is an immunologically active cancer, there’s long been concern that these pregnancy-associated immune changes — along with hormonal changes — might accelerate the skin cancer, but the clinical evidence overall is “reassuring” that pregnancy itself hasn’t been convincingly shown to increase melanoma incidence or make melanoma more aggressive, he notes. Fortunately, melanoma during pregnancy is uncommon, the doctor says. “That said, my mantra is straightforward: We don’t give melanoma nine months off because someone is pregnant,” Friedman tells TODAY.com. He’s not treating Robinson, but commenting in general. “If a lesion is suspicious, biopsy it. If melanoma is diagnosed, treatment of the primary tumor generally should proceed rather than waiting for delivery.” Melanoma can spread quickly, so the earlier the cancer is found and treated, the better the prognosis for a pregnant woman and her baby, the American Academy of Dermatology notes. Surgery remains the cornerstone of melanoma treatment, including during pregnancy, Friedman says. A wide local excision can be performed under local anesthesia, but a sentinel lymph node biopsy is a deeper and more involved operation so general anesthesia may provide the safest and most controlled way to operate, he notes. In each case, the decision is made by the surgical, anesthesia and obstetric teams, he adds. “Even though I had to go through anesthesia, (doctors) were all suggesting to do it quickly. Nobody suggested waiting,” Robinson recalls. A pregnant woman should never be denied medically necessary surgery or have it delayed regardless of trimester because this can harm her and her fetus, according to guidance from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Society of Anesthesiologists. No medications used for anesthesia at standard concentrations have been shown to harm a fetus at any stage of pregnancy, the statement notes. ‘More Aware of My Body’ Robinson had her surgery in late April when she was 34 weeks pregnant. Doctors removed the melanoma from her back and six lymph nodes from her armpit, so she has scars in two places. Mom and baby were fine, and Robinson gave birth to a healthy girl on May 26. “She’s been the easiest part of all of it,” Robinson says about her daughter. Tests revealed Robinson’s lymph nodes were clear of cancer. Doctors told her she has a low risk of recurrence, but needs to be monitored with full body skin checks every six months. “I just feel a little bit more aware of my body and aware of my family’s bodies. Not that you want to fixate on that or live your life scared, but I guess I’m definitely paying closer attention now,” Robinson says. Dermatologist’s Advice Pregnancy is a hormonally dynamic state, and skin pigment changes are common during this time: Existing moles can sometimes appear slightly darker, and moles on areas where the skin stretches, particularly the abdomen and breasts, may appear somewhat larger, Friedman says. But he urges women to not automatically blame a changing mole on pregnancy and to be aware of the ABCDEs of melanoma, especially E, which stands for an evolving mole that’s changing in size, color or shape. The doctor also warns about the “ugly duckling” mole that looks different from everything else on a person’s body. The black center, ragged borders and continued evolution Robinson’s friend flagged are exactly the kinds of changes that warrant prompt evaluation, he adds. “Please don’t wait until after delivery because you’re worried that a dermatologist can’t biopsy you while you’re pregnant. We can and we do,” Friedman says. “Biopsy and necessary cutaneous surgery can be performed safely during pregnancy.”