How are basal and squamous cell cancers removed?
Basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas are routinely removed surgically in an office setting, usually in a very non-traumatic way. There are multiple ways of removing the abnormal cells. Destroying them is one way and removing them and bringing the skin together would be another way. Destruction can occur by a process called curette and electro-desiccation, whereby the lesion is cut out, then scraped out and burned. The tissue can also be destroyed by using deep liquid nitrogen treatment which is not the normal way we use liquid nitrogen (which is for superficial destruction) but is rather a sophisticated way of removing the cells that are deeper than the surface of the skin. The standard way we remove skin cancers is by removing the skin which harbours the abnormal cells. The standard way is to cut out the abnormal skin and bring normal skin together. That is known as excisional surgery. There is another method known as a Mohs surgery. Mohs is a method used for very specific tumours in high risk areas or very specific tumours in which it is important to preserve normal skin. It has a very high rate of success, usually approaching 95-98% in terms of removing the skin cancer. It is done in stages where the tissue is removed, looked at under the microscope, and then the physician comes back and looks at it again under the microscope, until all the abnormal cells are removed. Although radiation is used in many other cancers, it is rarely used in skin cancers apart from in rather selective cases, and it is another way of destroying tissue.
