When it comes to skin cancer, no one type of treatment is best. Your options depend on the type of skin cancer you have, the stage it's in, size and location of the tumor, and your health.
Seek out a board-certified dermatologist to help you decide how to treat your skin cancer, advises Anthony Rossi, MD, FAAD, board-certified dermatologist and assistant attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “It is important to speak with a dermatologist who understands the type of skin cancer and the treatments available,” he says. “If you don’t know if a provider is an actual physician, ask. Also ask if they are 'board-certified' in dermatology. There are many non-physicians who claim to be dermatologists and this could be misleading.”
Depending on your situation, your doctor may advise to use one or a combination of the following treatments.
Surgery
The main treatment for most types of skin cancers, especially if detected in the early stages, “removing skin cancer surgically with a margin of normal tissue can treat it efficiently and prevent it from returning or spreading,” Dr. Rossi explains.
Mohs micrographic surgeryIn this treatment, the surgeon will use anesthesia to prevent you from feeling pain. Then, in open surgery, the doc makes one large cut to remove the tumor and some peripheral healthy issue. In the case of minimally invasive surgery, the surgeon makes a few small cuts and inserts a tube with a camera called a laparoscope to project images of inside the body onto a monitor so the surgeon can see their work. Then the surgeon inserts tools through other small cuts to use to remove the tumor and some healthy tissue.
Considered the most effective technique for treating many basal and squamous cell carcinomas, this specialized surgery is used on early, non-metastatic skin cancer. “It helps to preserve as much normal, non-cancerous tissues and give complete tissue margin examination,” Dr. Rossi explains, so the surgeon can be sure all of the cancer has been removed.
Radiation therapy
Typically used as an alternative to surgery for older patients and others who cannot undergo surgery, radiation therapy uses high-energy beams (often x-rays) to kill cancer cells. The beams may be delivered by a machine or by ingesting a solid or liquid form of radiation. “It can also be used in conjunction with surgery when the skin cancer is more advanced or has aggressive features that would make it prone to recurrence or spreading,” Dr. Rossi adds.
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