Less Common Treatments for Basal and Squamous Cell Skin Cancers
Fortunately, they are also the most curable, especially when the tumors are relatively small and thin.
Treatment depends on how large the cancer is and where it is found on the body.
Here is an overview of some of the more rarely used treatment options (an introduction to the more common methods is also available):
Radiation Therapy
It is most often used in patients who are not surgical candidates, in older patients, or in those with complex, disfiguring lesions or lesions on their lower legs, feet, hands or genitalia.
It can also have a role as an adjuvant (after surgery) therapy in cases of aggressive SCC with metastases in the lymph nodes.
The cure rate for radiation treatment is 90% to 93% but the resulting cosmetic appearance was judged as good by only 63% of patients.
Photodynamic Therapy (PDT)
PDT is a relatively new outpatient option for treating basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas that has been shown to be as effective as 5-flourouracil cream but the recurrence rate is higher.
The light switches on the drug, destroying the cancerous cells without damaging the surrounding tissue.
It is most effective in treating superficial lesions versus the thicker, more invasive ones.
Currently, PDT is useful for those patients whose topical treatments failed or who cannot undergo surgery.
Laser Ablation Therapy
The area is numbed with a local anesthetic first.
It is used for thin superficial basal and squamous cell lesions and not for deeper tumors since the recurrence rate is higher than surgery.
Since laser surgery does not destroy cancer cells found deeper in the skin, close follow-up with a dermatologist is important.
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