Skin Cancer Surgery

Skin Cancer Surgery - And How To Aviod It

Skin cancer is a malignant growth that typically forms on the epidermis or outer skin layer and is generally caused by repeated burns to the skin caused by the sun's rays or extended exposure to the sun over time. In the United States alone, more than one hundred thousand skin cancer cases are diagnosed annually with the mortality rates reaching into the thousands. Melanoma skin cancers are the least prominent form of skin cancer yet the highest percentages of mortalities come from this form.

Any signs of an unusual skin growth on any part of the body should be all that is needed to justify an immediate visit to your family doctor or health clinic.

If the treating doctor has any fear that the growth may be cancerous, they will order an immediate skin biopsy to be carried out. This is where some tissue is removed from the suspicious growth and sent for examination. The examination will attempt to ascertain if the growth is cancerous or not.

Dependent on the skin cancer's location and extent, the treating doctor will then decide which of the many treatment options to take. These will include curettage, (surgery to remove tissue or growths by scraping with a curette) radiation therapy and chemotherapy. The treatment chosen is dependent upon the type of skin cancer that is diagnosed.

If the cancer is found to be melanomic and there is a risk that it has spread to bloodstream or the lymph nodes, the surgeon will have no option but to carry out invasive surgery, with all that that entails.

Surgery to remove a cancerous tumor of the skin will involve the treating surgeon removing the entire tumor as well as some of the tissues surrounding it, as well as some of the lymph nodes to arrest further spread.

After the patient has had sufficient time to even partially recover from the effects of the surgical procedure, it is very possible that they will need to undergo a course of radiotherapy or chemotherapy or possibly both. The reasons for these extra and some say unnecessary treatments is to ensure that there are no cancerous cells left in the patient's body.

Chemotherapy in particular is a treatment that continues to generate controversy, as the public become increasingly aware of its debilitating and demoralizing side effects and the relatively low success rate of the treatment causing the cancer to re-appear stronger than even before.

On a brighter note, many cases have been reported that when all seems lost, skin cancer sufferers and their family have turned to an alternative form of treatment that might prevent all this suffering.

Known as the holistic approach, this form of treatment has produced remarkable results in the treatment in all forms of cancer. Many skin cancer sufferers, considered to be terminally ill, went on to make full recoveries live full and healthy lives.

Cancer