Skin Cancer & Melanoma
www.Cancer.org

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer and one of the most curable. The bulk of these skin tumors is either basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma; malignant melanoma being less frequently encountered though a more lethal type of skin cancer.

Both basal cell and squamous cell skin cancers tend to be slow growing and somewhat indolent. Most often, they tend to be more located on the higher exposure areas of the body, ie arms, legs and head or neck. Warning signs of a skin lesion include nonhealing, friability or bleeding, new growth, change in color or itching, spontaneous resolution and repeated recurrence.

The hallmark of skin cancer curability is early detection be it yourself or family member noting the change.

Treatment options are most frequently surgical in nature, but occasionall though far less frequent is radiation treatments. The complexity of surgical options is dictated by patient preference based upon the physician's assessment of size, location and primary or recurrence nature of the lesion. Melanoma being the most complex with respect to tumor depth and the assessment of any nodal disease.

All this aside,non melonma skin cancer is usually readily curable.

Melanoma

Melanoma - 47,700 cases in 1998, 27,300 women 4% is all cases and 20,400 men is 3% of all cases of cancer. Cancer is the 2nd most common cause of death in the United States surpassed only by heart disease, survival rates with early detection can be 88% or higher.