If you are diagnosed with skin cancer, you will have a team of a few different health care professionals who will work together to create a treatment plan designed just for you. Your team of dermatologists, surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, pathologists, radiologists, oncology nurses, and radiation oncologists will use different treatment combinations which are known as multidisciplinary teams.
There are a few different treatment plans for skin cancer that the team can come up with, and these recommendations depend on the thickness of the skin cancer, whether it has spread to other areas of the body, what stage of cancer it is, how fast it is growing, and any other medical conditions that the patient may have. Below is an overview of possible treatments that you may get when you are diagnosed with skin cancer.
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The surgery options
Your team may decide to go with surgery as the first step in your cancer treatment process. This procedure will be done by a surgical oncologist who will work to remove the tumour as well as some of the healthy surrounding tissue to ensure all of the cancer is removed. This is the primary treatment for people with either local or regional melanoma, and there are a few different types of surgeries that the team may choose from.
Your experienced oncology team, like the doctors of SunDoctors Newcastle, will work with you and keep open, honest communication with you to help you move forward with the right treatment plan that you are all comfortable with!
There is a wide excision surgery which is used when cancer that is found is less than 1.0 mm thick. It is usually an outpatient process that is relatively painless. If the area is large, you may need a skin flap or graft to close the wound up.
There is also the possibility of lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node biopsy. this surgical process uses a dye to trace which lymph nodes are involved and if cancer has spread to any lymph nodes. In this surgery, the oncologist removes the nodes that absorb the dye and check them for any cancerous cells.
If nothing is found, there is no cancer is detected there will be no further surgery needed. However, if they do contain cancer, it means the initial disease has spread and you will move on to the next treatment.
Getting radiation
This therapy uses high-energy X-rays to destroy cancerous cells, and it is done by the radiation oncologist. The most common type of radiation that is used is the external-beam radiation therapy and it is performed from a machine that is outside the body.
The radiation oncologist will decide the best schedule for you and the dose of radiation to use so that you experience the least amount of side-effects, like irritated skin and extreme fatigue, as possible.
Adjuvant therapy for skin therapy that is stage 2 or 3
If you have surgery and your oncology team believes you may have a high risk of getting same cancer again, they will probably recommend that you get adjuvant therapy. Adjuvant therapy reduces the risk of melanoma returning once it is surgically removed.
This therapy could be radiation therapy, immunotherapy which boosts your body’s natural ability to defend and fight against cancerous cells or undergoing clinical drug treatments that are still under research.
Options for cancer that can’t be surgically treated
If your oncology team finds that your skin cancer has spread to other parts of the body like the liver, lung, brain, bone, etc. they will diagnose you with stage 4 melanoma. If this happens they will more than likely put together a special team who has experience in treating stage 4 cancer specifically, and they will probably begin with chemo or radiation.
All treatment plans are dependant on several factors including things like the age and health of the patient, the location of cancer and how many clusters there are, how rapidly the cancer is spreading, and the preferences of the patient. There is hope for a long healthy life, and you have options!