the health professional tells you there’s nothing to worry about, yet the skin change continues to worsen, get it re-checked and biopsied, because we`ve all missed the diagnosis of an early skin cancer.
.....Treatment of SCC involves choosing among surgery, laser therapy, radiation, cryotherapy, and several other modalities. Bottom line: catch the SCC early, get after it, and the prognosis is excellent. And as with BCC, skin self-examination - with or without a partner - is a crucial part of long-term follow-up.
.....The most severe form of skin cancer is a malignant melanoma (MM), although melanomas that are caught early have an excellent prognosis, hence, again the need for those skin self-exams mentioned earlier. .....Although MMs occur more often in people who`ve had excess sun exposure (see why those dermatologists think we should all live in the dark, which, come to think of it, we here in the Lower Mainland do for much of the year whether we want to or not), especially in people with fair skin or those with lots of moles, the bottom line is that anyone can develop an MM, so we should all be “sun smart” and vigilant. Indeed, although we often think of young people who sun themselves excessively as being at highest risk for MM, Caucasian males in their sixties are actually the highest risk group.
.....As with the other forms of skin cancer, diagnosis of MM is often not easy. Traditionally, dermatologists warn people about the ABCDE rule for moles, an acronym for asymmetry, border, colour, diameter, and evolving. Thus any mole that’s asymmetrical or one with uneven borders or one that changes colour or one that`s larger than 6 mm (no, you don’t have to carry a ruler around with you – an estimate is fine) or one that’s evolving (the lay word is “changing”) should be checked out, but again, as already mentioned, if you’re not sure about any skin change, get it checked out, more than once, if necessary.
.....Anyway, here’s the pay-off I promised for having read all this up to here: anyone with risk factors for skin cancer, and trust me, that’s most of us, can wave this article at their partner tonight (even sooner, if that’s your bent) and say, “Hey, the doc says you have to examine my skin. Yes, tonight (or right now). And yes, in the dark. One thing, though. Maybe we could wait till the Viagra kicks in, OK?”
Dr. Art Hister can be heard on CKNW and other Corus Radio Network stations on House Calls on Saturdays at 10 AM, as well as seen on Global TV news on Saturday mornings at 9:20. |
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