Very sensible of Steve to visit your doctor and hospital specialist with a skin lesion which worried you and thankfully was shown to be benign / not cancer .


This type of lesion is also known as a seborrhoeic wart or basal cell papilloma. They are in fact nothing to do with sebaceous ( oil-producing ) glands or viral warts.


They are very common, harmless and often pigmented ( usually brown, or black ), growths on the skin. About a third of the UK population may have at least one by the age of 40, increasing in numbers with age, but they can occur in young adults. They are less frequent in people with dark skin.


We don’t fully understand the cause, although sunlight may play a role. They are equally common in males and females. The trunk and face are most commonly affected.


The lesions look like warts which are " stuck " on the skin, and may be tiny ( 1mm ) to several cm in size ( see pictures in this link ).


They can be worrying especially if they change, such as becoming inflamed or bleed. It may be wise then to have a doctor examine them, to rule out skin cancer / malignant melanoma.


They are in fact so common it would be impossible to routinely treat every single such lesion. Most need NO treatment. They can be frozen ( cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen ), scraped off ( curettage ) or removed ( excised, leaving a scar ) under local anaesthetic.


If there is clinical doubt and the lesion is curetted or removed, it is sent for microscopic diagnosis by a medical pathologist ( my specialty ). About a fifth of my workload was examining skin biopsies, most of which - but not all - proved non-cancerous.


The British Association of Dermatologists gives sensible advice ( approved by patients ) - see link here.