Skin and liver spots

Overview

Skin spots can appear on the body in many different forms and colours. The best known are small brown liver spots; these are normal and almost everybody has them. Skin spots should be carefully monitored as they can degenerate.

Symptoms

Liver spots

• Small, brown, palpable, round spots
• Can grow bigger slowly

Café au lait spots

• Uniformly light-brown and sharply demarcated spots
• Flat; not palpable
• Benign

Vitiligo

• Individual white patches on otherwise tanned skin, sharply demarcated
• Autoimmune disorder
• Not life-threatening but often a cosmetic problem

Age spots

• Sharply demarcated, can be round or irregular
• Light brown to dark brown
• Appear on sun-exposed areas of the skin
• Mostly on the backs of the hands, forearms and face
• After many years, they can turn into an early form of melanoma (lentigo maligna)

Port-wine stains

• Red, small or big “flame-like” stains
• Congenital, harmless, but can be a cosmetic problem

Haemangiomas

• Collection of small blood vessels
• Harmless, but can grow bigger fast
• Common in newborns, sometimes disappear on their own

Skin cancer

• Very dark to black spots (rarely also whitish spots)
• Appear suddenly, grow fast
• Asymmetrical, no sharply demarcated borders, different colours
• Can spontaneously bleed, become infected, burn or itch

Causes and treatment

Causes

Liver spots, café au lait spots

• Harmless skin blemishes
• Increase in melanin-producing cells (melanocytes)

Vitiligo

• Autoimmune disorder
• Family history

Age spots

• Caused by regular exposure to the sun
• Deposits of brown pigment in skin cells

Port-wine stains

• Mostly congenital
• Dilated blood vessels

Haemangiomas

• Frequently congenital
• Collection of small blood vessels

Skin cancer

• Damage by UV rays
• Skin cells degenerate and multiply uncontrollably

Further treatment by your doctor / in hospital

Possible tests

• Examination of the skin spot with a special lens (dermatoscope)
• Removal of a tissue sample to examine under a microscope (biopsy)

Possible therapies

• Removal of spots (small operation)
• Cryotherapy (freezing)
• Radiation therapy
  

What can I do myself?

• Observe and monitor skin spots
  • New spot?
  • Growing bigger fast?
  • Change in form / colour?
• Protection against UV rays
  • Sunscreen
  • Clothes
  • Hat
• Skin moisturiser
  

When to see a doctor?

Prominent liver spots:

• Very big or growing bigger
• New spot
• Irregular colour, very dark
• Not round or oval but “cloudy” form
  

Further information

Krebsliga
www.swisscancer.ch