Follow-up visits are very important for melanoma patients because doctors want to catch reoccurrences or new growths as early as possible. Patients who have melanoma should have lifelong skin surveillance since there is approximately a 3-5 percent risk of a second primary melanoma. The kinds of tests involved in follow-up visits may include a full-body skin exam, chest x-ray, blood tests, or scans.

The number of follow-up visits may vary from patient to patient depending on the severity of disease. The visits will decrease in frequency over time as long as the patient remains disease-free.