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by kmoser 277 days ago
This is a good example of what I find frustrating as a patient. Sure, cancers like that may be a tiny proportion of all skin cancers, but if I have it then it's 100% of my skin cancers. And given how serious skin cancer can be, I'd at least want my doctor to let me know how I could get this lesion tested, even if it's out of my own pocket.
2 comments

The risk of misdiagnosis and thus unnecessary treatment, can mean that such testing can increase your actual chance of dying or decrease your life expectancy. It depends on the case but its why we don't test generically for cancers unless someone is high risk (such as being old)
I agree with you - if a patient is concerned by a specific skin lesion and requests removal then I will support this even it appears harmless particularly if it is new or changing