Chronic Diseases

An Explanation Of Skin Cancer Treatments

If you have been diagnosed with skin cancer you may well be wondering what treatment you will receive as, even if you have already had your treatment options explained to you in detail by your doctor, you might still be confused by all the medical jargon that was thrown at you. It is also possible that you may not have taken in the information given to you by your doctor because of the shock following your diagnosis.

Detailed below therefore is a brief outline of just some of the treatments which are typically used to deal with skin cancer.

The specific type of treatment which you will receive will depend upon several different factors including your age and whether the cancer has spread beyond your skin.

Your treatment may consist of surgery in which your surgeon may decide to remove the cancer itself and also some of the skin from the surrounding area. Precisely how much health skin should be surgically removed will depend on the specific type of cancer found and how deep that cancer is. Ordinarily an area of about one to two centimeters of surrounding skin will be removed.

As well as conventional surgery, some forms of skin cancer can be removed by freezing using liquid nitrogen or treated with drugs like Imiquimod which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the use on superficial basal cell carcinoma.

A more extensive type of surgery might be necessary where a lymph node is found to contain cancer cells after a biopsy of any suspect area. This form of surgery is designed to remove lymph nodes near to the cancer along with affected skin and is often followed up with a course of radiotherapy.

Another recent development in the treatment of skin cancer is what is known as immunotherapy cancer vaccination although research into this particular form of treatment is still being undertaken and it is not yet widely available. Chemotherapy could also be recommended if the cancer has spread to other areas.

Although there is no specific preventative regime for skin cancer there are various things which you can do to reduce your risk of developing the problem and the most important and usually ignored is to reduce your skin’s exposure to the sun.

All of us, no matter what the color or type of skin you have should use a sunscreen that has a protection factor of not less than 15. It is also a good idea to wear protective clothing and stay out of the sun as much as you can, especially between 11am and 3pm when the sun’s rays are at their strongest. It is always advisable not to use sunlamps and sun beds as these too produce harmful rays.

Finally, keep a check on your skin and pay particular attention to any changes in lesions and moles. If changes are seen then you should see your doctor as soon as possible so that you can be treated while the problem is at an early stage

YourCancerQuestions.com provides answers to not just your questions about skin cancer but to cancer questions on a wide range of topics including liver, ovarian, stomach, prostate cancer and much more.