Skin Cancer Treatment Information For Cancer Patients

Skin cancer represents one out of every three new cancers diagnosed in the United States. Primarily there are two variations on this disease, malignant melanoma (skin cancer in the form of moles) & non-melanoma. Malignant melanoma is more serious and need to be attended to right away by medical staff.

As for the non-melanoma, there are two basic varieties, basal and squamous cell carcinoma, of the former being the more common type and roughly six times more frequent than malignant melanoma. Skin cancer can be devastating to come to grips with but alternative medicine has no shortage of treatments.

Conventional medical treatments used to cure cancer can seem worse physically on the patient than the cancer itself. This is one of the many reasons that more and more patients are starting to turn to natural alternatives for their cancer treatments.

Treatment of Skin Cancer of the Face

Alternative Skin Cancer Treatment for Patients

One of the alternative skin cancer treatment is a topical paste that you may apply to the area where the cancer is present. This paste actually seeks out and destroys cancer cells. Dr. Frederic E. Mohs and Dr. J. Weldon Fell were both well-known authorities in using this paste. Dr. Fell was a faculty member at New York University. Later he was one of the founders of the New York Academy of Medicine.

Another form of treatment is the use of vitamins and herbs such as Bloodroot. More well-known options include Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and calcium. These are great for helping your body to get rid of the cancer. Diet is yet one more method to treat cancer naturally. You may want to change your diet as there are things like sugar that enable the cancer to spread at rapid speeds.

The treatment for skin cancer will depend on the type of cancer you have and the severity of the problem. Basal cell cancer is usually found on the face only and is very treatable. Squamous cell cancer is found on those areas that are frequently exposed to the sun. It is very curable but only if caught before it has spread to other organs.

Melanoma skin cancer is the most dangerous and life threatening form of this disease not only because it can spread very quickly. If your doctor suspects melanoma, depending on where you live, he will try to arrange for a computerized screening of your skin.

This involves taking a digital image of the lesion and comparing it to a database of pictures of non malignant and malignant disease. It is an extremely accurate form of diagnosis. If the above digital screening is not available, a surgeon will remove the lesion plus an element of the healthy skin around the spot, mole or freckle.

He has a delicate job as he needs to remove all of the potentially malignant tissue but at the same time doesn't want to take too much as it may interfere with subsequent treatment. A pathologist will then examine these cells under a microscope. If the sample is malignant it will be staged depending on the thickness within the skin, whether it has ulcerated and/or spread to surrounding tissue or nodes.

Stage 0 is non malignant melanoma which has as yet shown no sign of turning cancerous. Stages 3 and 4 are the most dangerous as it has already spread and is therefore much more difficult to treat. If you have stage 3 or 4 you will be sent for a CAT scan to see if and where the secondary cancer sites are.

Chemotherapy is only usually used if the cancer has spread to distant organs. It used to be thought that if melanoma skin cancer has spread to other sites it was an automatic death sentence. Thankfully this is not longer the case as treatment has improved and surgery has proved to be quite effective.

There are new treatments for skin cancer being developed all the time. If you have been diagnosed with this disease do not give up hope. A positive attitude is some times half the battle. Get the best help and advice you can from properly qualified oncologists who will do everything in their power to help you beat this disease.