Skin Cancer

What is skin cancer?

The largest organ in your body is your skin, and it protects you from an array of infections and diseases that could cause severe damage to your organs and tissues. However, the skin itself can experience complications, and skin cancer is one of them. 

When skin cancer is left alone without treatment, it can spread to other parts of your body, where it can do more damage. Some types of skin are more aggressive and spread more quickly than others, but you need a diagnosis from a trained dermatologist to know which type you have and find out the most effective treatment strategy. 

Many types of skin cancer can develop within different cells of the skin. Skin cancer can show up as a new lesion, like a bump or area of discoloration, or it can affect moles and marks that you’ve always had. You should regularly look over your skin for unusual, irregular, or changing spots and bumps. 

How is skin cancer diagnosed?

The team at Dermatology Associates of Western Pennsylvania provides professional full-body skin exams, which they encourage you to get once a year. During the exam, they look over your whole body, head to toe, for any suspicious marks or bumps. 

Throughout the exam, the team might mark specific spots that catch their attention. They perform skin biopsies on any suspicious lesions, which involve removing a portion of skin after numbing it with anesthesia. They send the skin sample to a laboratory for further examination. The results confirm whether or not cancer is present. 

How is skin cancer treated?

As long as you catch it early, skin cancer can often be cured. This is why yearly preventive examinations are so important. Your treatment for skin cancer might require multiple strategies, including:

• Excision
• Cryosurgery
• Radiation
• Biological therapy
• Immunotherapy
• Curettage and electrodesiccation
• Chemotherapy
• Photodynamic therapy
• Mohs surgery

Mohs surgery is a treatment for common forms of skin cancer like basal and squamous cell carcinomas that is a specialty at Dermatology Associates of Western Pennsylvania. This strategy leaves behind as much healthy skin and tissue as possible while minimizing scarring and boasting a high cure rate. 

Find out more about your treatment options for skin cancer by scheduling an appointment over the phone or online at Dermatology Associates of Western Pennsylvania today.