Mr Tyler Blevins, also known as Ninja in video gaming circles, said a mole was removed from his foot during an annual check-up with a dermatologist a few weeks ago.
Mr Blevins is the closest video gaming has come to producing a mainstream star. He became the multimillionaire face of the popular battle royale video game Fortnite, and has about 19 million followers on Twitch, the Amazon-owned platform that has dominated the video game live-streaming industry. He also has more than 12 million followers on Instagram, and six million followers on X, formerly Twitter.
Melanoma accounts for just about 1 per cent of all diagnosed skin cancers, but causes a vast majority of skin cancer deaths. The American Cancer Society estimated that doctors would diagnose about 100,640 new melanomas – about 59,170 in men and 41,470 in women – in the United States in 2024, and that about 8,290 people would die as a result.