Doctor shares shocking video of ‘worst’ skin cancer he’s ever seen and issues urgent warning
A doctor has shared a shocking video of the ‘worst’ skin cancer he’s ever diagnosed.
Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the US with the American Academy of Dermatology Association estimating a whopping one in five Americans develop the condition in their lifetime.
Melanoma is the deadliest form of the cancer, though makes up around one percent of all cases in the US with the vast majority determined as basal and squamous cell carcinonmas.
According to the NHS, the main symptoms include changes to the skin, moles or appearance of new moles.
Now, doctor John O’Bryen, who goes by ‘skincaredoctor’ on TikTok, has been diligently raising awareness to the disease – and how people can spot the signs, even when they aren’t so obvious.
Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the US (Getty Images)
The specialist at Body Scan Skin Cancer Clinic in Australia has been raising awareness to the fact not all melanomas appear as freckles or moles and revealed in a shocking video the ‘worst’ type of skin cancer he has ever diagnosed.
The doc said in his video: “A man came to me last week, concerned about a new lump on his arm. It was red and had been quickly growing in size.”
Horrifyingly, O’Bryen showed a close-up video of the cancer with a ‘dermatoscope’, which revealed the spot was pink and white in color.
He said it measured 4mm on the Breslow thickness scale, which is used to measure the depth of a melanoma from the top of its granular layer to the deepest point of the tumor.
On the outside, it looked like a slightly elevated red lump, but under the microscope had ‘white polarising lines’ and ‘polymorphous vessels.’
The cancer under the microscope (@skincancerdoctor/TikTok)
The doc quickly diagnosed the patient as having a nodular melanoma, a dangerous type as he said they ‘grow quickly and cause the greatest fatality’.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, nodular melanomas present as a ‘firm, raised, discolored growth’ on the skin that can appear like a blood blister and may be itchy, sting or bleed.
They can look like a dome-shaped growth and can have either smooth texture or a ‘crusty’, rough feel, which the Clinic describes as like a cauliflower.
It can also grow both above and below the skin, yet most of the cancer sits below the surface – ‘like an iceberg’.
Nodular melanoma is the second-most common type, making up about 15 to 20 percent of diagnoses.
This type of skin cancer is also behind around 50 percent of all melanoma-related deaths.
How it looked from the surface (@skincancerdoctor/TikTok)
Writing further in the caption of his viral video, he said: “Scary! Not all melanomas are brown and black!
“I performed an excisional biopsy of this and the patient will see a melanoma surgeon and medical oncologist.”
He added how his magnifying tool, the Heine Delta 30 Pro dermascope, ‘continues to assist me in diagnosing skin cancers’ and has helped him to find and treat 1,000 people last year.
Featured Image Credit: @skincancerdoctor/TikTok
A UK woman has issued an urgent warning to other women after being diagnosed with cancer, which led her to a realisation.
Jasmin McKee, from Hampshire in England, was diagnosed with cervical cancer at 25 years old after delaying her routine pap smear.
In the UK, women were able to receive their pap smear once every three years, but NHS England chose to extend the period to screening for those without HPV history to five years.
Now 26, McKee explained that she first began to notice something wasn’t right when she started experiencing lower back pain and bleeding after sex in 2023, but believed it was caused by her copper coil contraceptive.
But in March 2024, when she attended her HPV screening, having delayed it because she heard about ‘horror stories online’, she found out that she was HPV positive with a large number of abnormal cells.
Shockingly, McKee received her HPV vaccination in high school, which vaccinates against nine different types of HPV.
However, it does not completely protect a person from developing cancer, it simply minimises the risk.
Jasmin McKee was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2024 (PA Real Life)
Sadly, for McKee, she was diagnosed with stage three cervical cancer which had spread to the surrounding tissue, leaving her ‘numb’ and hiding the news from her family.
She said: “Everything just goes a bit numb… it’s just such a big shock.
“The thought did go through my head of, ‘What am I going to tell my grandparents?’
“I actually didn’t tell my family for quite a while.
“I didn’t want the people that I love the most feeling sad for me. I just didn’t want them to worry.”
She received surgery in November 2024 and then radiotherapy in January 2025, but both methods were unsuccessful.
So, she began chemotherapy in April.
She was diagnosed with stage three cancer (PA Real Life)
She is now expected to finish treatment in September 2025 but has created a GoFundMe campaign to help with the costs of living as she cannot work.
However, she said because of her diagnosis she has realised the importance of booking your cervical screenings and hit out at NHS England’s choice to extend the HPV screening for those between 25-49 to five years.
She said: “When there are big changes like this, it can feel like they (NHS England) are not really taking women’s health seriously.
“I think that was probably one of my first thoughts when I first read about the changes… it can feel quite dismissive.
“It’s a scary thought that there could be women who go under the radar.”
She added: “It [a cervical screening] won’t always lead to a diagnosis, but it’s just to be on the safe side.
“Every three years is obviously a long time in itself, but I think a lot can happen in five years, and then someone might not know about cancer or something else until it’s too late, and it could have been prevented with more regular smear tests.
She hit out at the NHS for their smear time period extension (PA Real Life)
“So I do think [the change] was disappointing to read.”
An NHS England spokesperson said: “We recognise that changes to cervical screening can seem worrying but want to reassure everyone that this new approach is based on robust scientific evidence and an expert recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee.
“The NHS cervical screening programme tests for human papillomavirus (HPV) and uses a better and more accurate test than before.
“This means if you test negative for HPV, you don’t need to be screened as often as your risk of developing cervical cancer is very low.
“If you test positive for HPV, we’ll monitor you more closely with additional tests and follow-up appointments.
“This personalised approach ensures everyone receives the right level of screening based on their individual risk factors, providing better protection while reducing unnecessary procedures.”
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.
Featured Image Credit: PA Real Life
Cancer symptoms can occur in a variety of ways but a doctor has warned of the subtle symptoms that can be a sign of a particularly lethal type of cancer.
Esophageal cancer is the 10th most common cancer in the world and many people are unaware they could be showing symptoms of it.
According to the Cleveland clinic: “It starts in the tissues in your esophagus, the long muscular tube that moves food from your throat to your stomach. Tumors caused by esophageal cancer may not cause noticeable symptoms until the cancer has spread.”
This can make the cancer particularly dangerous, and according to a 2017 study, 9 out 10 patients are dead within 10 years from their diagnosis.
This only increases the importance of spotting the subtle signs of the cancer.
In a TikTok video, Dr Wendi LeBrett broke down some of the symptoms that can occur that people should be wary of.
Esophageal cancer is the 10th most common cancer in the world and the symptoms can be subtle (Getty Stock Image)
She said: “About 60 to 70 per cent of people with acid reflux have the typical symptom of heartburn—the burning sensation in your chest often after eating.
“That means around one in three do not have typical symptoms or know they have the condition.
“Watch out for a chronic cough, particularly at night when acid reflux is worse.
“Breathing problems can also be a symptom as the acid irritates the airways and can exacerbate conditions like asthma.
“Problems swallowing is also an atypical symptom.”
She added that dentist may be able to spot acid damage to your teeth and this can also be highlighted by yellowing of teeth as well as cracks and increased sensitivity.
About 60 to 70 per cent of people with acid reflux have the typical symptom of heartburn meaning they may miss the cancer symptom (Cleveland Clinic)
She added that anyone suffering these symptoms should seek help from a healthcare professional.
Acid reflux is common amongst the general populace and can occur simply after eating a large, rich meal or lying down after a meal.
Occasional acid reflux is normal and manageable according to the Cleveland Clinic, but ‘chronic acid reflux (GERD) might need treatment’.
The medical center added: “When acid creeps into places it doesn’t belong, you’re bound to feel it. Acid irritates and inflames the tissues inside your esophagus, which runs from your stomach up through your chest to your throat.
“Almost everyone has experienced an occasional episode of acid reflux. It might feel like indigestion — burning stomach pain after eating — or heartburn — burning chest pain close to your sternum.”
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/ozgurcankaya
A woman has shared a stark warning after receiving a shock skin cancer diagnosis at the age of 29.
Courtney Mangan was given just an 18 percent chance of survival when she received the devastating news that she had stage 4 skin cancer.
At the time, Courtney, who hails from Australia‘s Gold Coast, had been to her doctors on two separate occasions about a mole that she was concerned about.
But her worries were dismissed, and it wasn’t until she sought out medical advise from a skincare specialist that Courtney was given the bad news that it was already ‘too late’.
Courtney Mangan was first diagnosed with cancer at the age of 29 (courtneymangan/Instagram)
“I had a mole on my back that I never really saw – but my family told me it started to change and urged me to see a doctor,” she recalled.
“The specialist checked my whole body and said everything looked normal but I expressed my concern about the mole on my back so he took a cutting and sent it to pathology.”
Courtney continued to tell Daily Mail Australia that she quickly received the call she didn’t want to get from her doctor, who confirmed that her mole had come back as level four melanoma and that she needed to see another specialist in Brisbane.
Courtney’s had to go through many tests and surgeries since her diagnosis (courtneymangan/Instagram)
“I immediately went numb – my uncle had died from melanoma just a few years prior,” Courtney, now 38, said of the moment she was told the news.
“My whole world changed in that moment. I couldn’t think of it as anything other than a death sentence.”
But at this point, she hadn’t received her stage 4 diagnosis.
It wasn’t until Courtney began to experience more symptoms that she was told her cancer was stage 4.
A year after doctors removed the mole on her shoulder that was cancerous, Courtney developed a lump in her arm.
She thought that one of her symptoms was her IBS at first (courtneymangan/Instagram)
Then she started to experience pain while she ate – something she initially believed was because of her irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
But an endoscopy then confirmed that she had a mass in her bowel and, after operating on her, Courtney was told her cancer had spread to her internal organs and was now stage four.
Another mass was later found in her thigh, but doctors were unable to remove it.
Fortunately, Courtney has now been cancer free for three years, but she says you can ‘never really shake’ the fear of her illness coming back.
“There’s a dark cloud hanging over you all the time,” she added.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@courtneymangan
A British surgeon spoke on his podcast and highlighted the dangers of using certain types of mouthwash.
Karan Rajan argued that a person should stay clear of this certain type of mouthwash due to it increasing a person’s chance of developing a type of cancer
Speaking on his podcast, the British NHS worker went as far as to suggest people should avoid buying the mouthwash and think about alternatives.
He has also instructed people to read the labels beforehand rather than just buying any old product.
The surgeon warned against certain mouthwashes (Getty Stock Image)
He said: “People shouldn’t be using alcoholic [mouthwash] if they don’t need to. We are increasingly appreciating that we have an oral microbiome, and these can be affected by alcohol.”
Explaining the science behind his reasoning, he noted how alcoholic mouthwash can negatively impact a person’s body both in the short term and long term.
He said that alcoholic mouthwashes disrupt a person’s mouth biome, and this can be crucial for a bunch of reasons.
For example, he shared that lots of the ‘good’ bacteria in the mouth help defend your teeth and gums, freshen your breath and aid in the digestive process. Alcoholic mouthwashes regularly kill them off.
Unlike alcoholic drinks, the mouthwashes contain a higher concentration of alcohol and is exposed to your teeth and gums for a longer period of time.
Using mouthwash twice a day, swirling it around in our mouths means that a persons runs the risk of increasing the chances of serious health issues down the line.
Rajan continued: “Some early evidence suggesting that chronic mouthwash use has been linked, from a correlation point of view, to increasing rates of colorectal cancers because of that disrupted oral microbiome.”
Alcoholic mouthwashes are more concentrated than alcoholic drinks(Getty Stock Image)
As well as this, some of the other issues that can eventually arise from consistent use of alcohol-based mouthwash include burning mouth, mucosal pain, softening of composite filling material, teeth staining, enamel erosion and ulcers.
Also appearing on the podcast was Whitney DiFoggio, an American dental hygienist, who gave her two cents on using mouthwash in the first place.
She said: “You don’t need a mouthwash. Manually brushing the plaque and debris from your teeth with a toothbrush with something to get between your teeth as well as [covering] the fronts, backs, tops and bottoms is what you need.”
People are advised against using a mouthwash right after brushing their teeth as it can wash away the fluoride in the toothpaste that was just applied.
If you do take mouthwash, it is better to swill it after a meal, such as after lunch. Eating or drinking is also not advised till after 30 minutes.
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image