Managing Skin Cancer

Skin cancer is the most common malignant neoplasm and its incidence is rising worldwide. The epidemic increase in such tumors calls for efficient management by the application of appropriate guidelines for therapy and prevention. Clinicians managing these patients need to keep up to date with the latest advances, allowing them to provide optimal treatment. This practical guide offers the reader a comprehensive overview of the options for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cutaneous cancer. It covers all common skin cancers and also rarer lesions. Employing an "evidence-based medicine" approach, this truly international work presents a well-illustrated text in a reader-friendly format with step-by-step guidelines and visual flowcharts. Dermatologists, oncologists, and all other interested physicians will find this book an extraordinarily valuable resource for the clinical management of cutaneous cancer in their daily practice.

Mohs Micrographic Surgery, an advanced treatment procedure for skin cancer, offers the highest potential for recovery--even if the skin cancer has been previously treated. This procedure is a state-of-the-art treatment in which the physician serves as surgeon, pathologist, and reconstructive surgeon. It relies on the accuracy of a microscope to trace and ensure removal of skin cancer down to its roots. This procedure allows dermatologists trained in Mohs Surgery to see beyond the visible disease and to precisely identify and remove the entire tumor, leaving healthy tissue unharmed. This procedure is most often used in treating two of the most common forms of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. The cure rate for Mohs Micrographic Surgery is the highest of all treatments for skin cancer--up to 99 percent even if other forms of treatment have failed. This procedure, the most exact and precise method of tumor removal, minimizes the chance of regrowth and lessens the potential for scarring or disfigurement

The incidence of skin cancer continues to rise, as do the challenges physicians face in treating the growing population of skin cancer patients. Skin Cancer Management: A Practical Approach, 2nd edition addresses the spectrum of skin cancers from the precancerous to the inoperable. In this revised and updated edition, a wide selection of medical treatments and surgical procedures are described in detail and supplemented with an abundance of full-color figures. Numerous case studies help to illustrate the various techniques.

The editor of Skin Cancer Management: A Practical Approach, Dr. Deborah MacFarlane, gathers experts in selected techniques related to the assessment and management of skin cancer and has them critically review the existing literature in light of their considerable experience delivering care. The authors make recommendations for the best way to perform procedures. The tables provided in each chapter then become a manual of how to perform these procedures, and may in time be adopted by the wider universe of dermatologists as the standard of performance. The detailed descriptions of technique and treatment pearls lead the novice through the sequence of events in a way that instills confidence in their ability to safely perform the procedure. An example of the painstaking expla- tions is found in Chapter 5, Intralesional and Perilesional Treatment of Skin Cancers. The reader is advised to place eye protection on the patient and those performing the injection of methotrexate into a keratoacanthoma with a central crust. Rest assured that there will be a spray or stream of methotrexate emitted from the crusted area. Having eye protection will prevent methotrexate from accidentally getting into someone’s eye. Since we all learn to assimilate new information by taking action on the recommendations that we read, it would be a good idea for the physician to create, where relevant, a checklist for each procedure in the text. The checklist can be given to the office staff to set up the equipment for the procedure.

Skin cancer is the most common malignant neoplasm and its incidence is rising worldwide. The epidemic increase in such tumors calls for efficient management by the application of appropriate guidelines for therapy and prevention. Clinicians managing these patients need to keep up to date with the latest advances, allowing them to provide optimal treatment. This practical guide offers the reader a comprehensive overview of the options for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cutaneous cancer. It covers all common skin cancers and also rarer lesions. Employing an "evidence-based medicine" approach, this truly international work presents a well-illustrated text in a reader-friendly format with step-by-step guidelines and visual flowcharts. Dermatologists, oncologists, and all other interested physicians will find this book an extraordinarily valuable resource for the clinical management of cutaneous cancer in their daily practice.

Featuring more than 200 full-color illustrations, this highly practical volume provides detailed guidelines for diagnosing and treating various skin cancers. Particular emphasis is on the more common forms of premalignant and malignant lesions, including actinic keratosis, Bowen disease, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma and its subtypes. For each type of cancer, the authors provide complete information on clinical features, pathogenesis, histopathology, diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and prognosis. The book describes a variety of diagnostic methods, including shave biopsy and punch biopsy, and discusses all available treatments, including micrographic surgery, electrodesiccation and curettage, surgical excision, cryosurgery, intralesional therapy, and radiation. Close attention is given to surgical anatomy, proper use of surgical instruments, suturing techniques, postoperative wound care, common complications, and hazardous pitfalls.

The skin, uniquely positioned at the interface between the human body and the external world, plays a multifaceted role in the expression of cancer. Primary skin cancer is the most common cancer afflicting mankind and is rising in inci dence, despite the fact that it is often preventable. Besides primary cancer, the skin may show direct and indirect evidence of internal cancer, thus serving as a window to the body for both laymen and physicians alike. In addition, the acces sibility of the skin is useful for the study of carcinogenesis as well as cancer treat ment options. lowe much of my interest in skin cancer to Dr. Leon Goldman, the father of dermatologic laser surgery, and to Dr. Edmund Klein, the father of modern immunotherapy. We, at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute, were indeed for tunate to have a wealth of patients available for study. Many of the illustrations used in this book were of my patients at the Institute, and I kindly thank the fol lowing publications and their respective publishers for allowing me to reuse some of my photographs, most notably: Cancer Medicine (2nd edition), Journal of Surgical Oncology, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Archives of Dermatology, Cancer, and Journal of Dermatologic Surgery and Oncology. We are very fortunate in this work to have some of the world's foremost authorities in their areas as contributors, such as Drs. Zackheim, Lambert, J.W. Trimble, J.R. Trimble, Jackson, Crutcher, Mashberg, Wick, Sidell, F. Helm, G.

Non-melanoma skin cancer is a global public health issue. With an ever-increasing, and ageing, world population coupled with increasing numbers of immunosuppressed individuals the number of patients continues to rise. The head and neck is overwhelmingly the most frequent location for the development of a non-melanoma skin cancer and as such challenges the clinician with its complex anatomy. The importance of maintaining the aesthetics of the face and the function of the anatomy cannot be overstated, yet ultimately it is always the aim of curing a patient with the minimum of morbidity that clinicians strive for. However, the spectrum of presentations and subsequent management varies widely, ranging from patients with the ubiquitous low-risk mid-face basal cell carcinoma to those diagnosed with relatively uncommon but potentially life-threatening high-risk squamous cell carcinomas (e.g. involving metastatic lymph nodes or with perineural invasion present) and Merkel cell carcinomas.