TREATMENT:

1. Surgery This is the most common treatment for skin cancer.
   
   
2. Your doctor may remove the cancer using one of the following:
   Cryosurgery - this freezes the tumour and kills it.
   This type of surgery is used for very small cancers and premalignant and abnormal ones.
   Simple excision cuts the cancer from your skin along with some of the healthy tissue around it.
   
   Electrosurgery/cauterisation burns the tumour and removes it with a sharp instrument.
   This type of surgery is common for small tumours.
   Surgery may leave a scar on your skin.
   Depending on the size and location of the cancer, a skin graft may be performed to cover the area scarred.
   
   
3. Chemotherapy: drugs are used to kill the cancer cells.

Chemotherapy is often given as a cream or lotion placed on the skin.
It may also be taken by pill or it may be put into the body by a needle in a vein or muscle.
This form of treatment is occasionally used when melanoma has spread to other parts of the body.

• Radiation therapy / Radiotherapy Radiotherapy uses high energy rays to destroy cancer cells.

Although radiotherapy uses stronger rays than the X- rays used for taking pictures, it feels no different and is painless. There is as little harm as possible to normal calls.
Radiotherapy is commonly used in addition to surgery, or for awkward surgical sites or where surgery may be disfiguring.
Treatment for skin cancer depends on the type and stage of the disease, your age, and your overall health and well-being.

Copyright © 1996, 2006 European Institute of Women's Health.
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