Melanoma is the less and the most serious of skin cancers. Melanoma caused death of 75% of all skin cancer cases and rising, yet, every year people who diagnosed with melanoma increased each year, in just United States there are 60,000. Melanoma tumor usually find in the melanocytes, which produces pigment, or melanin.

Malignant Melanoma Prognosis

Melanoma skin cancer is more common in Caucasian populations living in sunny climates than in other groups, or in those who use tanning salons. According to a WHO report about 48,000 melanoma related deaths occur worldwide per year. Melanoma can also found in the anal/rectal region, in the linings of the mouth and vagina, and in the eye. Some are even found in the gut and central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).

Any of these areas can develop melanoma, but much less commonly than the skin. It is quite common, however, for a melanoma starting in the skin to spread (”metastasize”) to the aforientioned areas. The area where a cancer first starts is called the “primary site”, as distinguished from later areas of spread. The “primary site” is usually apparent for most cancers, but not uncommonly it remains “occult” in melanoma– the first sign of disease being distant metastasis. Thus, it is common to first detect metastatic melanoma in the lung, bone or brain, although its occult primary site was probably the skin.

In adulthood, Skin cells divide more slowly to replace cells that have died either from old age or injury. New skin cells arise at the deepest level of the skin, and gradually push their way upwards toward the surface as they mature. The main types of cells found within the skin are basal cells, which form the bottom layer, squamous cells, which push toward the surface to form the skin we see, and melanocytes, which produce melanin pigment that colors the skin. If specific types of gene damage occur in a cell, it can start dividing out of control. When cells divide quickly, they tend to pile up to form a lump, called a “tumor”.

A tumor merely means an abnormal swelling; it can be caused by infection, inflammation, or just about anything and is usually not cancer. A “benign” tumor only grows in its local area (albeit quite large), it cannot spread distantly and is not cancer. In contrast, a “malignant” tumor has the ability to spread to anywhere in the body, and this is cancer. This process of spread is called “metastasis”, and is what makes cancer so dangerous. Ultimately, cancer starts in a single cell and is a disease of its genes. Any type of skin cell can give rise to skin cancer, when their reproduction goes out of control, and they divide in a disorganized way. When basal or squamous cells become cancerous, they are called carcinomas, while when the melanocytes become cancerous, this is called melanoma, which has such a different character that it is a different topic from other skin cancers.

You may interest in article about Mole Removal, Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) skin cancer develops from keratinocytes, flat, scale like skin cells that lie under the top layer of the

squamous cell carcinoma pictures

epidermis. The majority of squamous cell carcinomas occur on sun exposed areas, especially the forehead, temple, ears, neck, and back of the hands. People who have spent considerable time sunbathing may develop them on their lower legs.
Squamous cell carcinoma skin cancer occurs in many different organs, such as mouth, prostate, lung, lips, tongue. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) also called Bowens’ disease, this skin cancer also able to spread away through blood vessels. This skin cancer can break away, leak, or spill from a primary tumor, enter lymphatic and blood vessels, circulate through the bloodstream, and settle down to grow new skin cancer within normal tissues elsewhere in the body, or called Metastasis. Metastasis is one of three hallmarks of malignancy (contrast benign tumors).
This cancer skin patients vary with race, gender, age, genetics and geography. In gender, male have 2:1 ratio compare to females, since most women are love to sunbathe and ignoring the danger of skin cancer. Caucasians are more likely to be affected by skin cancer, especially those with fair Celtic skin, if chronically exposed to UV radiation. Exposure to arsenic in well water or from industrial sources may significantly increase the risk of squamous cell carcinoma skin cancer.

Squamous cell carcinoma may be classified into the following types:

• Adenoid squamous cell carcinoma (Pseudoglandular squamous cell carcinoma)
• Clear cell squamous cell carcinoma (Clear cell carcinoma of the skin)
• Spindle cell squamous cell carcinoma
• Signet-ring cell squamous cell carcinoma
• Basaloid squamous cell carcinoma
• Verrucous carcinoma
• Keratoacanthoma

Other article – Squamous Cell

squamous cell cancer

Squamous cell is the part of the skin that become the place one of skin cancer types and the second most common form of non-melanoma cancer that is squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Squamous cell epithelium consists of very thin and flattened hexagonal cells which closely fitted like tiles of a floor. The nucleus is oval and lies in the center of the cell. This epithelium is found on the superficial layer of the skin, in the lining of the body cavity, blood vessels, walls of Bowman’s capsule. Cancer that occurs in this cell part aside of squamous cell carcinoma are basal cell carcinoma and other adnexal tumors.

Squamous cell carcinoma will not causing more problems if it diagnosed and treated early. However, if this skin cancer left untreated, squamous cell carcinoma can grow large or spread to other parts of your body, causing serious complications.

The cause of squamous cell carcinoma is sun exposure; the incidence of this skin cancer is rising every year. Most squamous cell carcinomas result from prolonged exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, either from sunlight or from tanning beds or lamps. The best things to prevent squamous cell carcinoma by avoiding UV light as much as possible. Sunscreen is an important part of a sun-safety program, but by itself doesn’t completely prevent squamous cell carcinoma or other types of skin cancer.

Just in this year, over 1 million people diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in United States. The risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma increases when a person also has one or more of these risk factors:

• Fair skin.
• Blonde or red hair; blue or green eyes.
• History of indoor tanning.
• Diagnosed with actinic keratosis (AKs).
• Family history of skin cancer.
• Weakened immune system (immune-suppression).
• Received radiation therapy.
• History of exposure to coal tar products or arsenic.

The risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma also increases with age because each exposure to harmful UV rays causes more damage to the skin. As this damage accumulates, the risk of developing skin cancer grows.

You may interest in our article about Melanoma

Melanoma is the less and the most serious of skin cancers. It is the main cause of skin cancer related death and has caused 75% death of all skin cancer cases and it still rising every year. In United States there are 60,000 people who diagnosed with melanoma each year.

Malignant Melanoma

Melanoma skin cancer is more common in Caucasian populations living in sunny climates than in other groups, or in those who use tanning salons. According to a WHO report about 48,000 melanoma related deaths occur worldwide per year. Melanoma can also found in the anal/rectal region, in the linings of the mouth and vagina, and in the eye. Some are even found in the gut and central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).

Any of these areas can develop melanoma, but much less commonly than the skin. It is quite common, however, for a melanoma starting in the skin to spread (”metastasize”) to the aforementioned areas. The most common place to first detect melanoma when metastasis are in the lung, bone or brain, although it’s occult primary site was probably the skin.

In adulthood, skin cells divide more slowly to replace cells that have died either from old age or injuries. New skin cells arise at the deepest level of the skin, and gradually push their way upwards toward the surface as they mature. The main types of cells found within the skin are basal cells, which form the bottom layer, squamous cells, which push toward the surface to form the skin we see, and melanocytes, which produce melanin pigment that colors the skin. If specific types of gene damage occur in a cell, it can start dividing out of control. When cells divide quickly, they tend to pile up to form a lump, called a “tumor”. Melanoma tumor usually find in the melanocytes, which produces pigment, or melanin.

In many years of melanoma treatment clinical trials, the effective treatment in treating melanoma is by surgical resection when the primary tumor thickness is greater than 1mm. This is the best time to treating this cancer, if melanoma in advance stage it will be too late.

A tumor merely means an abnormal swelling; it can be caused by infection, inflammation, or just about anything and is usually not cancer. A “benign” tumor only grows in its local area (albeit quite large), it cannot spread distantly and is not cancer. In contrast, a “malignant” tumor has the ability to spread to anywhere in the body, and this is cancer. This process of spread is called “metastasis”, and is what makes cancer so dangerous. Ultimately, cancer starts in a single cell and is a disease of its genes. Any type of skin cell can give rise to skin cancer, when their reproduction goes out of control, and they divide in a disorganized way. When basal or squamous cells become cancerous, they are called carcinomas, while when the melanocytes become cancerous; this is called melanoma, which has such a different character that it is a different topic from other skin cancers.

You may interest in our article about Cancer Skin

The first simple thing is, reduce the exposure to the sun

Like we know, sun is the main cause of melanoma skin cancer. So avoid go out at the time when sun in brightest state, it would between 11am to 3pm. At this hour, try not to expose you to the sun too much. For people who works at that hour, don’t forget apply sunscreen with SPF at least 15 and/or using close clothing. This cloth is not just a normal cloth; it is sun protective clothing. Its density is different with common cloth. Also whenever you’re outside for extended periods of time, try to find shade if at all possible and as much as possible.

Aware of freckle and sunburn

Many people don’t realize that their freckle and sunburn increase the risk of melanoma. The more you have sunburn and freckle, your risk in getting melanoma also gets higher. Also, the melanoma risk can also increase if you have personal or one of family member of any type of skin cancer, and if you have excessive sun exposure before the age of 10, it would increase the risk or melanoma as well.

Early detection

Some people tend to have a higher risk in melanoma. So, if trying to prevent it, but still got melanoma, early detection is incredibly important. Since when it comes to melanoma skin cancer, you cure chance is depend on how fast you know about melanoma before it is spread (metastasis) to other part of body and the damage can be neutralized.

Examine your whole body in front of your body scale mirror, and try to examine every single part of your body carefully. If you find a strange or suspicious mole, don’t hesitate to check to the doctor. It’s not uncommon for a doctor to skip this and if yours does be sure to remind them to do it because it’s incredibly important.

However, if you have a very high probability in getting melanoma skin cancer, such as; family history of any kind of skin cancer, or spending a lot of time outside when still kids, it suggested you having regular checkup one for every three months.

For you who don’t have melanoma, better keep in mind these several tips. It may useful preventing melanoma as well as helps to reduce your overall risk to this potentially deadly form of skin cancer.

Superficial Spreading Melanoma Cancer – previous

Superficial spreading melanoma (SSM) usually diagnosed when people who got it at age of 50, and it is occur on part of body that often expose to the sun, especially on the backs of males and lower limbs of females.

Superficial spreading melanoma (SSM) can be evolved from a precursor lesion, usually a dysplastic nevus. Superficial spreading melanoma (SSM) also can arise in previously normal skin. A prolonged radial growth phase, where the lesion remains thin, may eventually be followed by a vertical growth phase where the lesion becomes thick and nodular. As the risk of spread varies with the thickness, early SSM is more frequently cured than late nodular melanoma.

The microscopic hallmarks are:

• Large melanocytic cells with nest formation along the dermo-epidermal junction.
• Invasion of the upper epidermis in a pagetoid fashion (discohesive single cell growth).
• The pattern of rete ridges is often effaced.
• Invasion of the dermis by atypical, pleomorphic melanocytes
• Absence of the ‘maturation’ typical of naevus cells
• Mitoses

Superficial spreading melanoma Treatment

Superficial spreading melanoma treatment is usually done by excisional biopsy, wide local excision and possibly sentinels node biopsy. Spread of disease to local lymph nodes or distant sites (typically brain, bone, skin and lung) marks a decidedly poor prognosis.

Main article – Moh’s Surgery as Melanoma Treatment

Mohs surgery can also be used to treating melanoma. However, moh’s surgery has a higher cure rate if treating melanoma in situ. It has been used in the removal of melanoma-in-situ (cure rate 77% to 98% depending on surgeon), and certain types of melanoma (cure rate 52%). Another study of melanoma-in-situ revealed Mohs cure rate of 95% for frozen section Mohs, and 98 to 99% for fixed tissue Mohs method. In situ is a condition that a cancer is still not become cancer yet.

However, mohs surgery is appropriate when:

• The skin cancer is in an area where it is important to preserve healthy tissue for maximum functional and cosmetic result, such as: eyelids, nose, ears, lips, fingers, toes, genitals.
• The skin cancer was treated previously and recurred.
• Scar tissue exists in the area of the cancer.
• The skin cancer is large.
• The edges of the cancer cannot be clearly defined.
• The skin cancer is growing rapidly or uncontrollably.

Main article – Mohs Surgery

basal cell carcinoma skin cancer

The base and edges are microscopically examined to verify sufficient margins before the surgical repair of the site. If the margins are insufficient, more is removed from the patient until the margins are sufficient.

basal cell carcinoma

However, mohs surgery procedure usually performed by specially trained surgeons who have completed at least one additional year of fellowship training (in addition to the physician’s three-year dermatology residency) under the tutelage of a Mohs College member.

skin cancer treatment

With the Mohs technique, physicians are able to see beyond the visible disease, to precisely identify and remove the entire tumor layer by layer while leaving the surrounding healthy tissue intact and unharmed. As the most exact and precise method of tumor removal, it minimizes the chance of re-growth and lessens the potential for scarring or disfigurement.

basal cell carcinoma treatment

Because the physician is specially trained in surgery, pathology, and reconstruction, Mohs surgery has the highest success rate of all treatments for skin cancer – up to 99 percent. The Mohs technique is also the treatment of choice for cancers of the face and other sensitive areas as it relies on the accuracy of a microscopic surgical procedure to trace the edges of the cancer and ensure complete removal of all tumors down to the roots during the initial surgery. Mohs surgery also used for squamous cell carcinoma; however, the cure rate is not as high as Mohs surgery for basal cell carcinoma.

mohs surgery

Main article – Standard Surgical Excision

• Frozen section histology, or
• Parafin embedded fixed tissue pathology

Standard Surgical Excision is a preferred removal method of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and/or for this skin cancer treatment. The cure rate for this method, whether done by a plastic surgeon, family doctor, or dermatologist is totally dependent on the surgical margin. When standard surgical margin is applied (usually 4 mm or more) a high cure rate can be achieved with standard excision. The narrower the free surgical margin (skin removed that is free of visible tumor) the higher the recurrence rate.

Basal Cell Skin Cancer

This skin cancer treatment has a weakness that is a high recurrence rate of basal cell cancers of the face, especially around eyelids, nose, and facial structures. On the face, or on recurrent basal cell cancer after previous surgery, special surgical margin controlled processing (Mohs surgery is one of the methods) is required. With surgical margin controlled frozen section histology, a surgeon can achieve a high cure rate and low recurrence rate on the same day of the excision.

Skin Cancer Treatment

However, most standard surgical excisions done in a plastic surgeon or dermatologist’s office are sent to an outside laboratory for standard bread loafing method of processing. This method has a high “false negative” rate due to the random sampling of the tumour. For cosmetic reasons, many doctors take only very small surgical margins 1-2 mm, especially when facial tumour is being removed. A pathology report from such a case indicating “margins free of residual tumour”, often is inaccurate, and a high recurrence rate of up to 38% might occur.

Standard Surgical Excision

When in doubt, a patient should demand that either Mohs surgery or frozen section histology with either margin control or thin serial bread-loafing is utilized when dealing with a tumour on the face. The pathologist processing the frozen section specimen should cut multiple sections through the block to minimize the false negative error rate. Or one should simply process the tissue utilizing a method approximating the Mohs method during frozen section processing.

Skin Cancer Treatment

However, this method is difficult when applied to frozen sections; and is very tedious to process. When not utilizing frozen section, the patient might have to wait a week or more, before informing the patient if more tumors are left, or if the surgical margin is too narrow. And a second surgery must be performed to remove the residual or potential residual tumour once the surgeon inform the patient of the positive or narrow surgical margin on the surgical pathology report.

Skincancer-Fact.com

Main Article – Basal Cell Carcinoma Treatment Option

• The most common type of skin cancer
• Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common form of skin cancer; an estimated 2.8 million BCCs are diagnosed annually in the US.
• BCCs are rarely fatal or metastasis, but can be highly disfiguring if allowed to grow.
• Can cause massive disfigurement, but rarely metastasis and fatal.
• More common in Caucasian
• Only two-thirds of basal cell carcinomas skin cancer occur on sun-exposed areas of the body, one-third occur on areas of the body that are not exposed to sunlight.
• It is often difficult to distinguish basal cell cancer from acne scar, actinic elastosis, and recent cryodestruction inflammation, skin biopsy often needed.
• Unlike Melanoma, basal cell carcinoma caused by DNA damage.
• It is much more common in fair-skinned individuals with a family history of basal cell cancer and increases in incidence closer to the equator or at higher altitude.

Main Article - Basal Cell Carcinoma Skin Cancer