The stage of a cancer is a term used to describe the size of the cancer and whether it has spread beyond its original place in the body. There are several systems for staging malignant melanoma. Two of these, the Breslow or Clark’s systems, describe how deeply the melanoma cells have gone into the skin.

The AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer) divides system melanomas into four stages:

• Stage 1 The melanoma is only in the surface layers of the skin. It is less than 2mm thick.
• Stage 2 The melanoma is only in the surface layers of the skin, but is more than 2mm thick or more than 1mm and ulcerated (the skin is broken). Or there are other tiny areas of melanoma cells in the skin close to the main area of melanoma.
• Stage 3 The melanoma cells are in the skin and have spread into the lymph nodes close to the melanoma, and/or there are melanoma cells in the skin more than 5cm away from the main area of melanoma.
• Stage 4 The melanoma cells have spread to other areas of the body, such as the lung, liver or brain.
• Recurrent melanoma is when melanoma comes back after the initial treatment.