Other conditions that can resemble seborrheic keratosis
Seborrheic keratoses are noncancerous skin growths that sometimes resemble warts, moles, skin tags, or skin cancer.
- Warts are virus-related. Like seborrheic keratoses, warts tend to look dry and textured. However, they appear to be embedded in the skin, rather than pasted on, and are gray-brown, while seborrheic keratoses can be tan, brown, or black.
- Moles and seborrheic keratoses often range in color from light tan to brown or black. However, most moles develop during the first 20 years of life; seborrheic keratoses usually develop in people older than 30 and become more common with advancing age.
- Skin tags and some seborrheic keratoses may look alike and are equally harmless.
- Skin cancer (nonmelanoma) may appear as a slow-growing change in the skin, such as an irritation or sore that does not heal, or a change in a wart or mole.
- Melanoma and seborrheic keratoses can share similar traits, such as dark color, itchiness, bleeding, or inflammation. They both can have color variation within the growth. Melanoma usually has a smooth surface that can vary in height, while seborrheic keratoses usually look the same across the whole surface.1 Melanoma does not usually have the warty, pasted-on appearance of seborrheic keratoses.
If you have a new or rapidly growing skin growth or group of growths, see your doctor to make sure the growths are not cancerous.
| Author: | Shannon Erstad, MBA/MPH | Last Updated: March 16, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine Randall D. Burr, MD - Dermatology | |
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