Ask your Dr. Dont ask this bunch about cancer or financial advice lol.
Absolutely. On AVERAGE, it is probably the worst of the three skin cancers.
1. Basal cell is almost always nothing, can be excised or even in some cases treated with a cream a few times and it can go away.
2. Squamous cell is slightly more invasive, but often cleared up easily with cutting it out. The exception I have seen seems to be on men where it is on ears or temples or scalp - these guys often end up getting whittled on repeatedly for YEARS and having radiation treatments over and over... I've got a couple of guys in this situation right now. They often end up looking kind of nightmarish to the average joe... face all splotchy and red, scarred up, eyes drooping from repeated head & neck radiation, maybe missing ears or chunks out of scalp or face. It can be pretty disfiguring. It's a sad thing to watch.
3. Melanoma is in many ways the scariest of the three. Mostly because it can look so benign for a long time, and it frequently can happen anywhere on the body and it can invade deeply. That's why I say the biopsy and excision margins mean so much. It is the one that can spread to lymph nodes and such way distant in the body, squamous usually is local invasion of the head an neck. Melanoma can spread from the arm to other places. You can see from all the stories here, lots of folks have had a little melanoma cut off and never anything else happen again. If it was a quarter-sized biopsy and still needs more surgery, that doesn't necessarily mean much - alot of it depends more on the DEPTH than the spread, if that makes any sense. I remember being cautioned in residency not to do 'punch' biopsies on anything that looked suspicious for melanoma to avoid 'seeding' it deeper into the subcutaneous tissue.
The bottom line is, trust the providers, they're going to do the best they can and anyone treating melanoma knows to be super thorough in investigating and treating it.
As always, @RickN, if you have questions or just want to vent, I'm always here, you can PM me or text me and I'll do my best to help. But don't put the cart before the horse - it could still very easily be limited melanoma that can be easily treated and exterminated.
Any skin cancer has the potential to spread if it's near a lymph node, but melanoma has the greatest potential to spread to a lymph node. My dad spent years in the sun and seems to have a basal cell carcinoma that needs removed every year or so, always on his face, neck, or upper shoulder area.
I had a SCC removed from my shin two years ago even though I don't wear shorts or anything that would expose my legs, but I had one and had it a long time before I did anything about it. (Don't try this at home.) It was about the size, shape, and color of a Ticonderoga pencil eraser and never changed; I could pick at it or bump into something and it would fall off, my leg would bleed like a sieve, heal up, and the damned thing would grow back and look just like it had previously. This went on for close to ten years. At any rate, my primary care physician sent me to a dermatologist for a biopsy and ultimately had it removed via a Mohs procedure.
The dermatologist will likely want to aggressively screen your wife for skin cancer following removal of the melanoma. (Usually every 90 days for the first two years following the removal.) I have my doubts regarding the efficacy of that (I don't do it), but she'll need to discuss that with her dermatologist.
Rick, I had mine cut out about 1995, first just a small area cut out and tested, then when it tested malignant I had to go back to a surgeon who removed a much larger area about 1 1/2" wide by 2 1/2" long and down to the muscle on my back, if I remember correctly. It was strange seeing that hunk of meat that they took, kind of football shaped.
Luckily mine had not gone too deep into the skin layers to be bad for me, but could have been if not taken care of. For the next few years I had regular follow ups with dermatologist and chest x-rays.
Hopefully your wife's will be no more than mine and is a normal procedure for her.
I wish her the best during this time and will say a prayer for her and medical professionals treating her.
Luckily mine had not gone too deep into the skin layers to be bad for me, but could have been if not taken care of. For the next few years I had regular follow ups with dermatologist and chest x-rays.
Hopefully your wife's will be no more than mine and is a normal procedure for her.
I wish her the best during this time and will say a prayer for her and medical professionals treating her.
I’m not an authority by any means but allowing any cancer to continue its growth can be very harmful. I’ve seen the least worrisome Basal Cell or skin cancer ignored on the eyelid and the guy lost his eye. It ended up with the loss of his life because it entered the brain. I had a “Doctor” who always after an exam said, “next time.” Next time never came with home because he never referred me to a Dermatologist-I referred myself and was asked by Derm-why’d you wait so long? I left that Doctor that didn’t refer me and he continued to treat me over a period several month after I left him and submitted all the treatments to Medicare...
I'm sorry??? So... are you saying he continued to bill Medicare for visits that never occurred??? Did you report that Medicare fraud???
I went to the dermatologist recently for the first time to get checked. All of my family has had skin cancers and mom has had a melanoma which the Dr. said was hereditary so she wanted to check me from head to to and that was ok because she was HAWT lol
Just fyi to anyone that doesn’t have a good dermatologist yet. Dr Julie Lowe in OKC. A great doc and cute as well. Her ex, Dr James Lowe is a plastic, reconstructive surgeon that is very good as well. The scenery in his waiting room isn’t too shabby either.
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