Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer

Treatment

Most skin tumors are not cancerous and can be treated in the doctor's office, if treatment is necessary. The following treatment options are available at Mayo Clinic. Specific treatment decisions are based on each patient's condition.

Curettage and Electrodesiccation

After scraping away most of a growth with a long thin instrument (curette), physicians apply a mild electric current to destroy any remaining abnormal cells. This simple, quick procedure is commonly used to treat small basal or squamous cell cancers.

Freezing (Cryosurgery)

Small, early stage cancers can be destroyed by freezing them with liquid nitrogen. This treatment is usually performed in a physician's office.

Photodynamic Therapy

Photodynamic therapy destroys skin cancer cells by combining light and drugs that sensitize cancer cells to light. The treatment is currently used on precancerous skin lesions and small skin cancers. Mayo Clinic researchers are investigating its effectiveness on more advanced skin cancers.

Laser Therapy

Superficial skin cancers can often be removed with an intense beam of light (laser) that vaporizes growths with minimal bleeding.

Advanced Skin Cancer

For more advanced skin cancer, treatment often includes:

Mohs surgery has the highest cure rate of any skin cancer treatment.

Mohs Surgery

For large or recurring lesions or skin cancer on the face, Mohs surgery often offers optimal results. The physician removes the lesion and surrounding tissue layer by layer. Each layer is examined under the microscope, and removal of layers continues until no abnormal cells remain. This treatment has the highest cure rate of any skin cancer treatment, and is especially useful for areas of the body that have a high recurrence rate (eyelids, ears, nose, mouth). Annually, Mayo Clinic's highly trained dermatologic surgeons perform thousands of Mohs surgeries for patients who have nonmelanoma skin cancer.

Surgical Excision

Cancerous tissue, along with a margin of healthy tissue, is cut out (excised). Following excision, the surgical site is closed using sutures. Whether surgery for any type of skin cancer is performed in the outpatient or inpatient setting depends on if and how far the cancer has spread.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy is appropriate for some patients with skin cancer and can result in high cure rates.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, typically given as pills or intravenous medication, may be used for severe cancer that has invaded parts of the body beyond the skin.