Serious Symptoms Of Subungual Melanoma

Thinning Or Cracked Nail Plate

As subungual melanoma progresses to more advanced stages, patients may notice their nail has a thinning or cracked nail plate. The nail plate or corpus unguis is the outer part of the nail that is hard and composed out of translucent keratin protein. The nail plate in a healthy individual remains strong but flexible, as it has numerous layers of compacted, dead cells. The shape of an individual's nail plate is determined by the shape of the bone and tissues underneath it. When an individual has subungual melanoma, the cancerous cells begin to accumulate underneath the nail and change the shape of the underlying tissue in relation to the actual nail plate. This process causes the nail plate to become thinner in general as more and more cancerous cells take the place of cells that should be supporting and building the nail plate. The individual's nail plate weakens in and the shape of the tissue underneath it continues to grow in a different form than healthy nail tissue. This mechanism pushes the weakened nail plate in an unnatural direction in many cases and can cause it to crack vertically.

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