Understanding Skin Cancer

Skin Cancer : Treatment

The treatment you receive depends on several factors including your overall health, stage of the disease and whether the cancer has spread to other parts of your body. Treatments are often combined and can include:

• Radiation therapy where the cancer cells are killed by X-rays.
• Surgery where the cancer cells are cut out and removed.
• Electrodessication where the cancer is dried with an electric current and removed.
• Cryosurgery where the cancer is frozen and removed.
• Laser surgery where the cancer cells are killed by laser beams.
• Chemotherapy where the cancer cells are attacked by a drug that is either taken internally or applied on the skin.
• Photodynamic therapy where the cancer is covered with a drug that becomes active when exposed to light.
• Biologic therapy where doctors help your immune system better fight the cancer.

External Beam Radiation Therapy

External beam radiation therapy may be used to treat skin cancer and to relieve pain from cancer that has spread to the brain or bone.

• Treatments are usually scheduled every day, Monday through Friday, for several weeks to accurately deliver radiation to the cancer.
• Treatments are painless and take less than half an hour each, start to finish.
• Radiation therapy is often given in addition to surgery, chemotherapy or biologic therapy.
• Skin cancer is often treated with superficial forms of radiation that penetrate only a short distance below the surface.
• Doctors will target the radiation beams at your tumor to give more radiation to the skin cancer while keeping it away from underlying organs.