HOW IS BASAL CELL CARCINOMA TREATED?
I use surgical excision with suturing, laser excision, or curettage and electrodesiccation (using a sharp surgical curette to remove the tumor and for biopsy while making sure the entire tumor is gone, and subsequent burning with an electric needle). I find cure rates with any of these methods to be well over 95%. The surgical procedures described above should be completely painless, with the patient feeling only the slightest prick with a local anesthetic. Another method reserved for the most difficult skin cancers, in my opinion, is called Moh’s chemosurgery. This method may leave larger defects that can take a significant period of time to heal. It is, therefore, not usually my initial therapeutic choice. This method involves taking small pieces of skin and checking them to ensure complete removal of a large tumor or difficult recurrent tumors. We may occasionally use cryosurgery (freezing) or x-ray to treat some skin cancers. In some carcinomas, large size or difficult location may
