Skin Cancer Surgeon

A Skin Cancer Surgeon will help you get rid of skin cancer

The skin cancer surgeon is one of the first doctors you’ll see after a diagnosis of skin cancer.  A dermatologist or family doctor will determine the skin cancer types you have using a biopsy.  Then you will be sent to the skin cancer surgeon for treatments for skin cancer.

The skin cancer surgeon will consult with you about your cancer.  He or she will talk about how the cancer needs to be completely removed.  You will discuss how to resect the cancer so that no more cancer cells remain.

The idea is to get a skin cancer cure with one surgery.  The skin cancer surgeon will talk to you about how best to remove the cancer without leaving any behind.  There are different types of surgery for the different skin cancer types.

The Skin Cancer Surgeon and Basal Cell Cancer

The basal cell cancer is one of the skin cancer types that does not travel to other body areas.  The skin cancer surgeon needs to take the cancer off your body and go deep enough to get the bottom layer of cancer.

The skin cancer surgeon will remove the skin cancer and have the base examined to make sure the margins are free of cancer, especially at the base.

Basal cell cancer is common on the face.  The skin cancer surgeon needs to make sure the skin structure remains intact.  This might mean doing some plastic surgery to keep the face looking normal.

It is important to get a skin cancer cure but it is just as important to maintain the integrity of the face.

The Skin Cancer Surgeon and Squamous Cell Skin Cancer

Squamous cell skin cancer can rarely go to other body areas.  If it is small, squamous cell skin cancer is not likely to travel to other body areas.  A small case of skin cancer might be treated using destructive methods such as freezing or burning.

If the patient has an actinic keratosis, it is a skin damaged area that can turn into squamous cell skin cancer.  The skin cancer surgeon or dermatologist will burn this area off with cryotherapy.

Cryotherapy uses cold from liquid nitrogen to “burn” off the actinic keratosis before it gets too deep or turns into squamous cell skin cancer.

If the squamous cell skin cancer is too deep, the doctor will have to remove more tissue.  You may end up having a skin graft to protect the areas of the skin that needed removal at the time of surgery.  The idea is to have all margins of the skin cancer, including deep to the cancer, free of the cancer.

The Skin Cancer Surgeon and Malignant Melanoma

You need a skin cancer surgeon to do the first part of the treatment of malignant melanoma.  The surgeon must determine the depth of the malignant melanoma in a biopsy because the depth determines the stage of the malignant melanoma.

Malignant melanoma is one of the types of skin cancer that can easily go to other places in the body.

The skin cancer surgeon has to do the tests necessary to see if the skin cancer has spread.  A biopsy of lymph nodes might need to be done as well as other tests to make sure the malignant melanoma hasn’t spread.

The skin cancer surgeon must be very careful with malignant melanoma.  He or she must make sure that all of the skin cancer is removed with a wide margin of normal cells around it.

Some malignant melanomas can grow back in the same area as before.  This happens when not enough normal tissue was removed around the malignant melanoma.

The Skin Cancer Surgeon and Staging of Cancer

The skin cancer surgeon is an important part of staging for skin cancer, especially malignant melanoma.  There are many stages in malignant melanoma that depend on the lymph nodes involved and on the depth of the skin cancer.

The Clark Level and the Breslow depth are terms a skin cancer surgeon would understand.  They help doctors decide what the chances of survival are and whether or not to use other treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation.

The skin cancer surgeon will use a biopsy or the surgical specimen to determine the depth of the cancer.  This, and other measurements, will help you know what your chances of survival are.  You can discuss these findings with the skin cancer surgeon.

Summary

The skin cancer surgeon is important to having a skin cancer cure.  They do surgery on basal cell cancers, squamous cell skin cancer, precancerous lesions and malignant melanoma.   They are active in the management of these cancers after the first excision is done.

More excisions may be done if there wasn’t a large enough margin taken around the cancer.  The surgeon may be called upon to take more skin cancer off or to take cancer out of the lymph nodes.

Dr. Christine Traxler

4 8 2010