More Australians than any other Caucasians are facing skin cancer cells today. Worryingly, the incidence of skin cancer is growing more among people above 70. More men than women are likely to get skin cancer. The main reason for skin cancer is due to overexposure to the ultraviolet rays. If you are living in sunny areas, and are taking in too much sunlight, you might get skin cancer. Also, those people who live in hilly and mountainous regions are more likely to get this disease.
So if you are a white male, above 70 and living in sunny and high altitude areas, you fall in a high-risk skin cancer group. Thankfully, most forms of skin cancer can be detected and later treated successfully. There are three kinds of skin cancer- Basal Cell Carcinoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma, and Melanoma.
The first two make up around 90% of all skin cancer cases and can be easily diagnose and treated. Melanoma is more dangerous and often goes undetected. If discovered early, even Melanoma can be addressed quite satisfactorily. If you think you are in a high-risk group, consider visiting one of the many skin cancer clinics in Australia, such as Sun Doctors.
Table of Contents
Skin Cancer Therapies
Each therapy has a different objective and context. What might work in the form of skin cancer may fail in a different scenario. Broadly, there are eight different kinds of skin cancer therapies. These are:
- Normal surgery
- Radiation therapy
- Photodynamic Therapy
- Chemotherapy
- Targeted Therapy
- Chemical Peel
- Other therapies using drugs
- Immunotherapy
Surgery or Excision
Here, doctors use various kinds of operations.
- In a simple process, doctors remove the affected part of the skin.
- In micrographic surgery, doctors keep peeling off layers and layers of cancer cells until no more affected cells remain. The diseased cells are examines under the microscope for checking the extent of cancer. This kind of surgery is used on the face, neck, and genitals.
- Shaving– this process is like shaving off a piece of the affected skin with the help of a blade.
- Electrodesiccation– This process is also called electro-surgery. Here, the affected portion on the surface is cut with the help of a spoon-shaped knife. Later, a needle is used to pass electric current in the affected area to stop bleeding. Using this process, cancer surgeons remove the remaining cancer cells in the surrounding areas as well. Your surgeon might use electro-surgery twice or three times to remove all the cancer cells from your affected skin part.
- Cryosurgery– Here, the surgeon freezes the skin cancer cells and makes them ineffective. Freezing is done with the help of liquid nitrogen.
- Laser surgery– Cancer surgeons, use a narrow laser beam to make bloodless excisions to destroy skin cancer cells and tumors.
- Dermabrasion– In this method, a small rotating wheel is used to abrade or rub away the skin cancer cells and tumors on the surface.
Radiation Therapy
Here, a beam of energy is directs at lesions, skin cancer cells, and tumors. This burst of energy kills those cells. More often, doctors use X-rays in radiation therapy, but sometimes they also use protons and other micro-particles in radiation therapy to treat skin cancer.
Chemotherapy
This process uses drugs to neutralize the skin cancer cells. Drugs can either be ingests or injected into the main body in this process.
Immunotherapy
Sometimes, skin cancer can be treated by boosting the human body’s immune systems. Doctors use interferon, vaccines, and certain other drugs in this process.
Photodynamic therapy
Certain drugs don’t work until they are expose to light. This therapy uses drugs and light to treat skin cancer.
