Skin Cancer Treatment

Dealing with skin cancer? Here are your options.

We know that you never expected to hear that you have skin cancer, but now that you’ve received a diagnosis you can sit down with us to discuss the best options to remove your skin cancer. Whether you’ve been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma or melanoma, our team of board-certified dermatologists offers a wide range of skin cancer treatment options to individuals living in and around Chapel Hill and Raleigh, NC.

Nonsurgical Treatment Options 

If you’ve been diagnosed with a non-melanoma form of skin cancer that hasn’t spread to other areas of the body then you might be able to turn to our Chapel Hill and Raleigh, NC, dermatologists for nonsurgical treatment options. During your evaluation, we will explore the different options with you to see which one may be ideal. Some common non-surgical skin cancer treatment options include,

Topical Therapies 

Topical chemotherapy is applied to the skin several times a day for many weeks. When people think about chemotherapy they often think about IV or oral administration. With topical chemotherapy, the medication targets only the skin and doesn’t spread throughout the body. This option is best for those with superficial basal and squamous cell skin cancers

Superficial Radiation Technology (SRT) 

This revolutionary low-energy, non-invasive skin cancer treatment uses a small handheld device to deliver very low levels of radiation that only targets right below the surface of the skin. Traditional radiation penetrates the body, which can cause intense side effects. With this device, we can provide patients with a non-invasive, non-surgical and pain-free way to treat their non-melanoma skin cancers.

Curettage & Electrodessication 

This technique involves burning or scraping away cancer cells from the cancerous lesion. This technique targets just the skin’s surface and therefore is only ideal for low-risk forms of basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas.

Surgical Treatment Options 

Mohs Surgery 

This is a popular surgical technique for removing skin cancer including both melanoma and non-melanoma lesions. This procedure does take more time than other surgical techniques but it also preserves as much healthy tissue as possible by only removing tissue a layer at a time until all cancer cells are gone. This is ideal for treating more delicate regions such as the lips, eyelids and ears for which tissue preservation is important.

Excisional Surgery 

This more traditional form of skin cancer surgery removes the cancerous tissue along with the tissue around it and is used to treat melanoma, particularly more widespread and larger skin cancers.

If you’ve recently been diagnosed with skin cancer or if you’re dealing with a suspicious mole that needs to be evaluated, turn to our board-certified dermatologists at Central Dermatology Center in Chapel Hill or Raleigh, NC, for a diagnosis and treatment plan. Call us at (919) 401-1994 to schedule an evaluation.