Muncie’s Mayor, Dennis Tyler spent the month of January 2016 fighting malignant melanoma found on his back.
Mayor Tyler visited his dermatologist in early January who found an eight millimeter wide spot on the back of his neck. After tests were conducted, doctors diagnosed Tyler with malignant melanoma, the deadliest of skin cancers. According to SkinCancer.org, heredity plays a major role in the development of melanoma.
After the diagnoses, Mayor Tyler and his wife, Vickie, went to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital on January 25 for surgery. The spot on his back, “the size of a baked potato” was removed by surgeons at the hospital. The lymph nodes in the spot were checked in order to determine if the cancer had spread to anywhere else in the body. Thankfully, Mayor Tyler heard back within a week that the cancer was completely removed.
Now back in City Hall, Mayor Tyler has been stressing the importance of checkups. He expects his doctor will remind him to visit the doctor more often as well.