Skin lesions are dangerous and potentially deadly.
Complete your appointment with your medical provider.
If surgery is required, you will have a procedure to remove the lesion and reconstruct the area.
It is important that you follow your post-operative instructions and attend your appointments as scheduled.
Financial Information
We are in network with most major insurances and many HMOs. You can check our network status with your insurance company.
We are happy to provide an estimate of benefits to you so you know what to expect in terms of your financial responsibility.
What are the risk factors for skin cancer?
The risk factor for skin cancer include:
Is the rate of skin cancer increasing?
Yes. Both non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancer rates has been increasing over the years. Between 2 and 3 million non-melanoma skin cancers and 132,000 melanoma skin cancers occur globally each year.
How can I protect against skin cancer?
While you cannot 100% protect youreself against skin cancer, there are several things you can do to minimize your risk:
Will I develop more skin cancers?
Once you have had skin cancers, you have an increased risk of cancer. You can reduce you the risk of developing more cancers by reducing exposure to the sun, watching for skin changes, and ensuring that you continue the monitoring protocol with your doctor.
What does a squamous cell cancer look like?
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) commonly arises on areas that are chronically exposed to the sun. SCC often appears as a hard, scaly bump or scaling patch and may be mistaken for a wart or patch of dry skin.
What is melanoma and what does it look like?
Melanoma can occur anywhere on your skin. However, it most often occurs on the legs of women or the backs of men. It often occurs inside molesa and is often brown to black lesion. These lesions are usually not uniform in border, color, or surface. Melanomas on sun-damaged skin can appear like brown patch or freckle that is irregularly colored.
What is actinic keratosis and what does it look like?
Actinic (solar) keratosis is the most common type of pre-cancerous lesion and is the result of chronic sun exposure. Actinic keratosis looks like a scaly patch of dry skin, either flesh-colored or pink. It often occurs on sun-exposed areas. It is important to treat actinic keratoses early. Actinic keratosis can turn into squamous cell carcinoma.
Skin cancer is by far the most common type of cancer. Skin cancer — the abnormal growth of skin cells — most often develops on skin exposed to the sun. However, skin cancer can also occur on areas of your skin not ordinarily exposed to sunlight.
There are three types of skin cancers - basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. If you have skin cancer, it is important to know which type you have because it affects your treatment options and your prognosis.
We have a three pronged approach to our Skin Cancer Clinic. We focus on prevention, monitoring, and management.
The risk of skin cancer can be reduced by preventing excessive sun exposure and skin burns. It is important to wear protective barriers to the sun along with sun screen.
Certain patients have a higher risk of skin cancer due to family history, skin type, or past sun exposure. For individuals that are at elevated risk for skin cancers, it is important that regular monitoring is conducted. A skin check is a examination of your skin for suspecious lesions. Skin lesions are measured and photographed to document change. Higher risk lesions are removed.
Higher risks skin lesions often need to be removed and the area around reconstructed. In some cases, mohs surgery is utilized to minimize tissue loss. For smaller lesions, it is possible for them to be removed in the office under local anesthesia.
It is important to understand what we are looking for when evaluating lesions. The ABCs of skin cancer are a helpful educational tool to help learn about skin lesions. Please note that only a qualified health care provider should make the determination if a lesion is problematic. If you have a lesion, the best part of valor is to get it checked out. Nothing makes us happier than looking at a lesion and telling you its not a problem - its our favorite type of appointment. So, don't be shy about setting up an appointment even if you are pretty sure that mole is fine.
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