Don't ignore nails Around Kentucky Posted Tuesday, February 1, 2005 by arjuna
Wednesday, January 26, 2005


By Byron Crawford The Courier-Journal

While removing nail polish nearly a year ago, Lynda Sherrard of Frankfort noticed a dark streak halfway down the middle of her right thumbnail.

"It looked like somebody had run a fine-tipped pen down the nail from about midway to the end," she said. "I thought it looked odd, but I didn't know what it was."

Sherrard, 60, mentioned it to her family doctor, who thought it might have been caused by a splinter and saw no need to be worried. Another doctor guessed it was a symptom of aging.

About six months later, Sherrard said, The Courier-Journal ran an article about what your nails tell you about your health.

"This thing had never grown out, so I read through the article, and one of the things it said was that if you have a vertical black streak in your nail, see your doctor immediately. That was when I began to worry," she said.

Biopsy done

Eight months after Sherrard discovered the dark line, doctors at Lexington's Dermatology Associates of Kentucky took a biopsy of both the nail and the thumb and discovered she had a form of skin cancer known as keratoacanthoma, a low-grade malignancy that was surgically removed.

"The doctor did indicate that it was one that spreads," Sherrard said. "He made the comment that he was glad I came when I did, and he said that I had been in danger of losing at least a digit of my thumb."

Dr. W. Patrick Davey of Dermatology Associates notes that streaking of nails occurs naturally in a large percentage of dark-skinned people and is rarely a cause for concern among that group. Among fair-skinned individuals, however, dark streaks on the nails, especially under a single nail, generally raise suspicion among doctors and should not be ignored.

It may be a mole, or . . .

"Most commonly it ends up being a freckle or a regular old mole that's causing the problem with the streaking," Davey said. "I've been doing surgery on the nails since 1988 and have yet to really find a melanoma. But I think the message is that if you have this kind of change in your nail, it could be a skin cancer."

Davey averages a surgery about every two weeks on patients who have developed some form of skin cancer under fingernails or toenails.

"When you reach a certain age you see a lot of bumps and discolorations on your skin that you tend to take for granted," said Sherrard, an antiques dealer in Versailles.

"I've had a friend that, since this happened, said, 'You've got me studying my nails every day.'
"She came in one day over at the antique mall and said, 'You won't believe this, but a friend of ours just found a melanoma under her toenail. We'd never heard of any of this until you started having the problem with your thumb.' "