Lumps and bumps
A skin ‘lump or bump’ is taken here to refer to a lesion on the skin that an individual recognizes as something new or unusual. It comprises a heterogeneous group and presents in many guises, usually to primary care. Common causes of ‘lumps and bumps’ include warts, moles, skin tags, dermatofibromas, lipomas, epidermoid cysts, and, of course, melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers. Distinguishing malignant from non-malignant is not always straightforward. Maintaining a low threshold for referral into secondary care is wise, especially for pigmented lesions, but also for those lesions where there is no obvious diagnosis. Occasionally, a lump in the skin may have arisen from an internal source, such as a metastasis or lymph node. This chapter describes only primary cutaneous lesions and classifies them according to their origin.