Will a Melanoma Grow Back from Shave Biopsy?

If the lesion was biopsied and then determined to require complete surgical excision, then I would highly recommend that you see your physician for follow-up for complete surgical excision. 

A biopsy, whether shave or excisional, is performed in order to determine whether anything further needs to be done. If the biopsy is read as benign, then generally nothing further needs to be done. If the biopsy is read as malignant or atypical, then generally further surgery is performed. Exactly what is performed is dependent upon what the diagnosis is... e.g. atypical nevus, melanoma in situ, invasive melanoma. If a patient is concerned that the pathologic diagnosis is incorrect, they should get a consultation or second opinion on the biopsy. It is not a good option to wait and see what grows back. A benign lesion may grow back if it is incompletely removed. A melanoma may grow back if it is incompletely removed; however, if a melanoma was originally in the tissue specimend, waiting to see when it grows back may allow some of the melanoma cells to reach deeper and possibly impact one's prognosis. If you have doubt or question, there is no problem getting a second opinion.

Based on the history that you have provided, you should have the biopsy site excised further.  If the biopsy results truly show melanoma, a wide and deep elliptical excision is required to provide a safe margin of removal of remaining cancer cells. Deeper melanomas may require further studies of the lymph nodes.  A shave biopsy does not provide adequate margins for melanoma.  Leaving a biopsied melanoma untreated may have fatal consequences.  Please seek follow-up with a Board certified dermatologist.

Biopsies of suspicious moles are often performed by a shave technique. If the biopsy comes back as a melanoma, additional treatment should be performed. At a minimum, this includes re-excising the mole to ensure a clear margin is obtained with no residual melanoma is left behind. Unlike the shave biopsy, the re-excision is performed with a scalpel and the wound is closed with stitches. Depending on how severe your melanoma is, additional tests and procedures, such as a sentinal lymph node biopsy, might be recommended. The chance of your melanoma recurring at the biopsy site or elsewhere, depends on the severity of the melanoma.

A shave biopsy, rather than excisional biopsy, is problematic when melanoma is suspected.  Melanoma is staged based upon the depth or thickness of the lesion, so when it is shaved, you lose the ability to accurately assess the thickness for the purposes of establishing a course of treatment, beyond wide excision, and prognostication.  Any melanoma should be treated by wide excision with significant margins.  I am curious to know why you think a melanoma might have been misdiagnosed as benign.  The pathology slides can be re-reviewed by another laboratory; I personally send all my specimens to a dermatolopathologist who specializes in lesions rather than a general pathology laboratory.  Melanoma is a serious disease which can be deadly so, if you have any reason to believe that you did have a melanoma, I would encourage you to seek treatment from a team including a board certified dermatologist and plastic surgeon, who could then determine what further evaluation and surgery might be necessary and whether referral to an oncologist would be appropriate. Best of luck.  Dr. K