Skin Cancer Itchy

With skin cancer, itchy patches are often eczema or psoriasis and not cancer. It is important to know the different skin cancer symptoms because each type of skin cancer has different symptoms. With Bowen’s disease, a precursor to skin cancer, itchy wounds are seen. They look like red patches.

Bowen’s disease patches should be treated with cryotherapy (freezing) so they don’t turn into squamous cell skin cancer. If they are left alone, the lesions can thicken. They can grow deeper into the skin so that cryotherapy can’t be done. In such cases, the squamous cell skin cancer needs to be cut out with an incision with wide margins.

You can use a skin cancer cream if the skin cancer is itchy. Skin cancer cream is either soothing to make the itch better, or a chemotherapy cream to get rid of the Bowen’s disease.

Skin Cancer Symptoms

With skin cancer, itchy symptoms are not common symptoms. Many skin cancers do not hurt or itch at all. Often, you’ll see a sore or a spot that does not heal very well. It can form ulcers where the center of the skin cancer has died.

A skin cancer that’s itchy is usually a squamous cell skin cancer. It is a scaly patch of skin that has a red base. Squamous cell skin cancer can be treated with skin cancer surgery. Rarely is chemotherapy or radiation necessary.

Skin cancer that bleeds in the middle is usually basal cell cancer. Basal cell cancers are relatively fragile. They break open easily and bleed in the middle of the lesion. Skin cancer surgery takes care of basal cell cancer.

Melanoma Skin Cancer Symptoms

Melanoma is usually colored brown, black, yellow or pink. It is made out of melanocytes that have turned cancerous. Melanocytes make the pigment in our skin.

Melanomas rarely itch but they sometimes bleed if ulcerated. They tend to look irregular. They can come out of a mole or from normal skin. The color is often multicolored—a sure sign that the mole is probably cancerous or at risk for cancer.

Because melanoma symptoms are so few, it is a good idea to check your own skin. Watch for skin cancer. itchy areas that should be examined more carefully. Check with your doctor whenever any area has pigmentation that has changed.

If you find a suspicious area on your skin…

If you find there is a suspicious area on your skin—an area that has changed perhaps—you should have the doctor do a clinical evaluation of your skin, focusing on the suspicious area. If the doctor cannot tell whether or not the lesion is cancerous, a shave biopsy or an excisional biopsy must be performed.

A shave biopsy is when they take shaves of the possibly cancerous area. The doctor sends it off to be looked at under the microscope. It is intended to be only a portion of the lesion so if it is cancerous, more skin cancer surgery is needed.

An excisional biopsy is one in which the entire lesion and a margin of skin around it is removed. The pathologist who looks at this biopsy can tell if the whole lesion has been removed. He can also tell if the biopsy is incomplete and needs more skin cancer surgery.

With malignant melanoma, a wider area of tissue is needed in order to make sure no cancer cells are left. Skin cancer surgery, such as Mohs skin cancer surgery is done to make sure all the margins are clean as possible.

On the good side

Most itchy lesions are not cancerous but are things like ringworm, eczema or psoriasis. These are scaly skin lesions caused by many different things. They can be red patches that have scales on them but they are usually intensely itchy. Skin cancer does not itch much at all.

Your doctor should evaluate any itchy lesion you have that does not heal after four weeks. Most of the time, it will be a benign lesion like eczema. They often show up in different places on the skin. There are multiple lesions. Multiple lesions are hardly ever cancer.

Summary

With skin cancer, itchy lesions are possible but not likely. More often you’ll find that the patches are non-malignant and are something like psoriasis, eczema or ringworm. If cancer is suspected, the doctor will do a biopsy. The biopsy can tell if there is cancer in the lesion. If the entire lesion is removed, the skin cancer worries are over. If more skin cancer surgery is required, the margins are checked to make sure there is no cancer left in the body. With malignant melanoma, the margins must be very wide because malignant melanoma is deadly.

Written by: Dr. Christine Traxler
Edited by: Margaret Stenerson
July 13, 2010