Skin
Cancer Treatment
Skin Cancer Treatment
Treatment
for skin cancer usually involves some type of surgery. In
some cases, doctors suggest radiation therapy or chemotherapy.
Sometimes a combination of these methods is used.
Treatment for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma is
straightforward. Usually, surgical removal of the lesion is adequate.
Malignant melanoma, however, may require several treatment methods,
including surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.
Because of the complexity of treatment decisions, people with malignant
melanoma may benefit from the combined expertise of the dermatologist,
a cancer surgeon, and an oncologist.
Medical Treatment
Surgical removal is the mainstay of therapy for both basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas.
People
who cannot undergo surgery may be treated by external radiation
therapy. Radiation therapy is the use of a small beam of radiation
targeted at the skin lesion. The radiation kills the abnormal cells and
destroys the lesion. Radiation therapy can cause irritation or burning
of the surrounding normal skin. It can also cause fatigue. These side
effects are temporary. In addition, a topical cream has recently been
approved for the treatment of certain low-risk nonmelanoma skin cancers. In
advanced cases, immune therapies, vaccines, or chemotherapy may be
used. These treatments are typically offered as clinical trials.
Clinical trials are studies of new therapies to see if they can be
tolerated and work better than existing therapies. Surgery
Small lesions may be
removed through a variety of techniques, including simple excision
(cutting it away), electrodesiccation and curettage (burning the tissue
with an electric needle), and cryosurgery (freezing the area with
liquid nitrogen). Larger tumors, lesions in high-risk locations,
recurrent tumors, and lesions in cosmetically sensitive areas are
removed by Mohs micrographic surgery. The surgeon carefully removes
tissue, layer by layer, until cancer-free tissue is reached. Malignant
melanoma is treated more aggressively than just surgical removal. To
ensure the complete removal of this dangerous malignancy, 1-3 cm of
normal-appearing skin surrounding the tumor is also removed. In some
cases, when available, the removal is accomplished using Mohs
micrographic surgery. Depending on the thickness of the melanoma,
neighboring lymph nodes may also be removed and tested for cancer. The
sentinel node method uses a mildly radioactive substance to identify
which lymph nodes are most likely to be affected.
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