If you have been told that you have skin cancer you may well be unsure about the treatment that you will be receiving as, even if you have already talked through your treatment options with your doctor, you may still feel lost due to the inability to absorb all the technical and medical jargon that was used. You may not have been able to take in the information given to you by your doctor because of simple shock following your diagnosis.
Detailed below therefore is a brief outline of some of the treatments that are typically used when treating skin cancer.
The type of treatment that you will receive will depend upon a number of different things which include things like your age and whether or not any cancer has spread beyond your skin.
Treatment may include surgery in which the surgeon may decide to remove the cancer itself together with some of the surrounding skin. The amount of normal skin removed will be dependent upon the specific type of cancer found and how deep that cancer is. In general an area of approximately one to two centimeters of surrounding skin is removed.
Some forms of skin cancer can be treated by freezing using a substance called 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 wider ranging form of surgery may be needed where a lymph node is found to contain cancer cells after a biopsy of any suspect area. This technique is designed to remove lymph nodes close to the cancer including affected skin and is usually followed by a course of radiotherapy.
A recent development for skin cancer treatment is immunotherapy cancer vaccination although research into this form of treatment is still being conducted and it is as yet not widely available. Chemotherapy could also be recommended if your cancer has spread into other areas.
There is no definitive form of prevention for skin cancer but there are several things which you can do to reduce your chance of developing the problem and the most important yet often disregarded is to keep your skin covered if you are out in the sun.
Everybody, regardless of the type or color of skin you have should use a sunscreen which has a protection factor of not less than 15. It is also a good idea to wear sufficient clothing and stay in the shade as much as you can, especially between 11am and 3pm when the sun’s rays are stronger. It is not advisable to use sunlamps and sun beds as these too produce harmful rays.
Lastly, keep a check on your skin and pay especial attention to any alterations to moles and lesions. If you are conscious of a change then you should see your physician as soon as possible so that treatment can be started without delay
YourCancerQuestions.com provides answers to not just your questions about skin cancer but to cancer questions on a wide range of topics including lung, breast, liver, cervical cancer and much more.
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