Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave has unfortunate news for fans regarding her battle with melanomas.
“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alumna. Shared on Instagram on Tuesday that immunotherapy “has not been successful in treating melanomas.” In the photo she posted, Mellencamp, 42, shows pink scars on her upper back and right shoulder.
She added: “I had a wide excision of the most recent skin cancer last week to see if that was the case, and unfortunately that was not the case.”
According to the American Cancer Society website, Immunotherapy is “a treatment that uses a person’s immune system to fight cancer. Immunotherapy can boost or change how the immune system works so that it can find and attack cancer cells.”
Mellencamp and her doctors have decided that the “next best course of action” is to have surgery next week “to remove more of the problem area,” she wrote.
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“I don’t like to dwell on things, and my anxiety is starting to show, but I believe that everything will be okay, and that the reason this happened to me is because I am able to raise awareness,” she wrote.
“After surgery, when my margin becomes clear, God willing, we will continue to closely monitor my body every 3 months,” Mellencamp added. “In the meantime, I’m very much looking forward to spending Christmas with my loved ones and hope this serves as a reminder to book skin checks for the new year.”
Mellencamp has been open about her journey with skin cancer.
She shared her stage 2 melanoma diagnosis last year and wrote on Instagram: “The moral of this story: If the doctor says, ‘Come every 3 months, please come every 3 months.’ “I wanted so badly to get rid of this.”
She added: “I still share this journey because I was a teenager in the 1990s, putting baby oil and iodine on my skin to tan. I didn’t apply sunscreen or check my moles until I was 40.” “This has been a wake-up call for me, and I hope you all will love and protect the skin you live in.”
What is skin cancer?
Melanoma accounts for only about 1% of skin cancers, but it is more likely to grow and spread than other types of skin cancer, making it more dangerous. “It causes the vast majority of skin cancer deaths,” according to American Cancer Society.
This occurs when melanocytes (the cells that give the skin its tan or brown color) begin to grow out of control. For people with fair skin, melanomas are more likely to start on the legs in women and on the chest and back in men. Other common sites are the neck and face.
according to American Academy of Dermatology“When skin cancer does develop in people of color, it is often at a late stage when it is diagnosed.” For black people, “skin cancer often develops on parts of the body that are exposed to less sunlight such as the bottoms of the feet, lower legs, and palms of the hands.”
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