NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Most people know it’s important to get freckles and moles checked out by a doctor, but a small spot under your nail could be just as dangerous.
As CBS 2’s Dr. Max Gomez reported Friday, New York-based nail specialist Dr. Dana Stern is warning of a potentially deadly nail cancer
– not technically the nail itself, but malignant melanoma of the nail bed, the skin under the nail.
“There was a brown line across my finger nail for I would say maybe a few years,” patient Julie told Gomez. “Just like you have moles on your skin you can have a mole on your nail matrix which is where the nail grows from,” explained Stern.
Julie sought out Dr. Stern when the stripe in her nail began to change. “It started as a light line and then it eventually started getting wider and the middle of it started to get really black,” Julie said.
Her cancer was caught early, but Stern warns that you need to be vigilant if you see something unusual under your nail. “People will sometimes develop an early melanoma and think it’s an injury and they don’t even really realize they’re supposed to go to their dermatologist,” Stern said.