What is an "excisional biopsy"?

What is an "excisional biopsy"?

Harry Saperstein, MD, FAAD (Dermatologist, Clinical Assoc. Professor, Medicine, Private Practice and UCLA) gives expert video advice on: How are early-stage melanoma skin cancers treated?; What types of radiation therapy are used to treat skin cancer?; Does laser therapy have a role in treating skin cancer? and more...

When someone presents to our office with a possible skin cancer, we need to do some sort of tissue analysis to find out under the microscope first whether it is a skin cancer, then what kind of skin cancer it is, and then under certain circumstances what the features of that skin cancer are. There are numerous ways of doing a biopsy or a tissue sampling. Perhaps the most involved way of doing that is an incisional biopsy whereby the entire lesion is removed and usually the normal skin is then sewn together. That is usually not necessary with a basal cell carcinoma and a squamous cell carcinoma. In certain circumstances, it may be necessary if a malignant melanoma is suspected, because it is the only way we can get both the breadth and depth of the entire lesion in order to find out some of those features for which we are looking. Those features may offer both diagnostic as well as prognostic significance.