If you have been diagnosed with skin cancer you might be uncertain about the treatment that you will be getting because, even if you have already had your treatment options explained to you in detail by your doctor, you might still be reeling from all the medical jargon that was thrown at you. It is also possible that you might not have been able to take in the information because of simple shock following the diagnosis.
Below therefore is a brief outline of a few of the treatments that are typically used to deal with skin cancer.
The specific type of treatment which you will receive will depend upon a number of different factors including things like your age and whether your cancer has spread to other parts of your body.
Treatment could consist of surgery in which your surgeon might decide to remove the cancerous region itself and also some of the surrounding skin. Precisely how much health skin should be surgically removed will be dependent upon the specific type of cancer found and how deep that cancer is. As a rule an area of roughly one to two centimeters of surrounding skin is removed.
Some skin cancers 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 if a lymph node shows cancer cells following a biopsy of any suspect area. This form of surgery removes lymph nodes close to the cancer along with affected skin and is frequently followed up with a course of radiotherapy.
Another recent development for skin cancer treatment is what is known as immunotherapy cancer vaccination although research into this particular form of treatment is still being undertaken and it is not yet widely available. You may be given chemotherapy if your cancer has spread into neighboring tissue.
There is no definitive form of prevention for skin cancer but there are a number of things which you can do to minimize your risk of developing the problem and the most important yet often disregarded is to minimize the skin’s exposure to the sun.
Everyone, no matter what the type or color of skin you have should use a sunscreen with a protection factor of not less than 15. It is also a good idea to wear sufficient clothing and remain out of the sun as much as you can, especially between 11am and 3pm when the sun’s rays are stronger. It is always advisable not to make use of sunlamps and sun beds as these too give off harmful rays.
Lastly, keep a check on your skin and pay particular attention to any changes in lesions and moles. If you are conscious of a change then you ought to visit your physician as quickly as you can so that you can be treated while the problem is at an early stage
YourCancerQuestions.com provides answers to not only your skin cancer questions but to cancer questions on a wide range of topics including liver, ovarian, stomach, prostate cancer and much more.
Comments on this entry are closed.