If you have been diagnosed with skin cancer you could well be wondering what treatment you will receive because, even if you have already talked through your treatment options with your doctor, you might still feel lost due to the inability to absorb all the medical jargon that was thrown at you. You might not have taken in the information given to you by your doctor because of the shock following the diagnosis.
Here therefore is a brief description of a few of the treatments which are typically used to deal with skin cancer.
The exact treatment you will receive will depend upon several different things including things like your age and whether or not any cancer has spread beyond your skin.
Your treatment might consist of surgery in which your surgeon might decide to remove the cancer itself together with some of the surrounding skin. The amount of normal skin removed will be dependent upon the particular type of cancer found and how deep it is. Ordinarily an area of about one to two centimeters of surrounding skin will be removed.
Some types of skin cancer can be removed by freezing using a substance called liquid nitrogen or removed with drugs like Imiquimod which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the use on superficial basal cell carcinoma.
More extensive surgery might be necessary if a lymph node is found to contain cancer cells after a biopsy of a suspect area. This form of surgery removes lymph nodes near to the cancer along with affected skin and is frequently followed up with radiotherapy.
A recent development for skin cancer treatment is what is known as immunotherapy cancer vaccination although research into this form of treatment is still being undertaken and it is as yet not widely available. Chemotherapy could also be recommended if the cancer has spread into other areas.
Although there is no definite prevention of skin cancer there are a variety of things which you can do to minimize your risk of developing the disease and the most important yet generally ignored is to reduce your skin’s exposure to the sun.
All of us, no matter what the type or color of skin you have should use a sunscreen which has a protection factor of not less than 15. You should also wear protective clothing and stay in the shade as much as possible, especially between 11 o’clock in the morning and 3 o’clock in the afternoon when the sun’s rays are stronger. By the same token, it is always advisable not to use sun beds and sunlamps as these too give off harmful rays.
Lastly, keep an eye on your skin and pay especial attention to any alterations to moles and lesions. If you are conscious of a change then you should visit your doctor as soon as possible so that you can be treated while the problem is at an early stage
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Tags: Diseases, skin cancer, Skin Care, skin treatments
