Treatments for Skin Cancer

The treatments for skin cancer differ depending on the skin cancer types. Some skin cancers are treated with surgery alone. Other types of skin cancer need radiation or chemotherapy.

Doctors often treat basal cell cancer and squamous cell cancer with surgery alone. Sometimes squamous cell cancer or actinic keratoses (precancerous lesions) are treated with cryotherapy to freeze off the lesions. Removing the cancer treats basal cell cancer. Doctors leave a margin of normal tissue around the excised cancer.

A skin cancer surgeon is the doctor who removes these cancers. The skin cancer surgeon knows that there needs to be a specific margin of healthy tissue removed with the cancerous tissue. The doctor removes more tissue in malignant melanoma than in basal cell cancer or squamous cell cancer.

Radiation

Radiation is usually used for malignant melanoma or one of the rare skin cancer types. Radiation involves using x-rays to target areas suspected or known to have cancer in them. Radiation is not usually a skin cancer cure by itself.

Radiation is one of the treatments of skin cancer that doesn’t usually hurt. It takes areas that might have skin cancer in them and kills off fast-growing cells. Radiation is done to the same area of the skin over many days to get rid of residual cancer cells.

Radiation for malignant melanoma is done if the doctor doesn’t think the margins of normal skin were wide enough. In order to affect a skin cancer cure, radiation and chemotherapy are done to make sure any leftover cells are killed.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is rarely used for squamous cell carcinoma and almost never used for basal cell carcinoma. It is commonly used in the treatment of malignant melanoma. There is topical, injected and systemic chemotherapy for use in treatments for skin cancer.

Chemotherapy works by getting rid of fast growing cells. This is why it works against cancer cells so well. Hair follicles, bone marrow and the lining of the mouth also grow quickly so they can lead to side effects of chemotherapy.

Side effects of chemotherapy are:

• Loss of hair
• Loss of appetite
• Hair loss
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Poor resistance to infection
• Tiredness
• Easy bruising (due to loss of platelets)

These side effects last only as long as it takes to have the chemotherapy. Some patients don’t have many side effects at all.

Retinoid Therapy

Retinoid therapy is related to vitamin A therapy. Doctors use it to treat skin cancer and acne. It is sometimes used on non-melanoma skin cancers. Non-melanoma skin cancers are treated with this type of therapy. The retinoid therapy can be taken by mouth or put on the skin.

Retinoid therapy is best used on squamous cell skin cancer or early skin cancers (actinic keratosis). You can put on the cream or take a pill and the cancer will regress. It is not used as a major treatment for skin cancer.

The skin cancer surgeon can remove most of the cancer with cryotherapy and then apply retinoid therapy to the remaining skin cancer. This can affect a skin cancer cure for squamous cell carcinoma. It is generally not used for basal cell cancer or malignant melanoma.

Photodynamic Therapy

Photodynamic therapy uses a specific drug and a laser light to kill cancer cells. The drug is injected into a vein and is only activated by light. The laser light shines on the skin and the drug kills the cancer cells.

Photodynamic therapy does not kill very many healthy cells. This is because the light is very precise and can get to the cancer cells only. Photodynamic therapy is used in squamous cell cancer and basal cell cancer.

Skin Cancer: Types of Surgery

There are several types of surgery for skin cancer. There is the Mohs micrographic surgery in which the tumor is cut from the body in several thin layers. The edges of the skin cancer are checked to make sure they are clean. The layers are removed until no more cancer is found. This procedure is often used on the face.

A shave excision is where a shave of cancerous tissue is removed for looking under the microscope. Cryosurgery takes frozen liquid nitrogen and freezes abnormal tissue. It is good for small cancers.

Summary

Different treatments for skin cancer for different skin cancer types are to affect a skin cancer cure. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, cryotherapy and photodynamic therapy are the major ways a skin cancer surgeon gets rid of skin cancer in a patient.

Written by: Dr. Christine Traxler
Edited by: Margaret Stenerson
July 12, 2010