How Fast Can Skin Cancer Kill You

Symptoms If Cancer Has Spread To The Brain

You might have any of the following symptoms if your cancer has spread to your brain:

• headaches
• weakness of a part of the body
• fits
• personality changes or mood changes
• eyesight changes

• J Tobias and D HochhauserJohn Wiley and Sons Ltd

• TNM Staging ChartsLippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2009

• Improving supportive and palliative care for adults with cancerNational Institute for Clinical Excellence , 2004

• Oxford Textbook of Palliative MedicineEds D Doyle and othersOxford Universty Press, 3rd edition 2005

• Cancer and its Management J Tobias and D HochhauserWiley Blackwell, 2015

Learning About Clinical Trials

The radiation oncology treatment team is constantly exploring new ways to treat cancer through studies called clinical trials. Todayâs standard radiation therapy treatments are the result of clinical trials completed years ago. For more information on clinical trials, ask your doctor or visit:

National Cancer Institutecancer.gov/clinicaltrials

Questions To Ask The Doctor

• Do you know the stage of the cancer?
• If not, how and when will you find out the stage of the cancer?
• Would you explain to me what the stage means in my case?
• What will happen next?

There are many ways to treat skin cancer. The main types of treatment are:

• Surgery
• Immunotherapy
• Chemotherapy

Most basal cell and squamous cell cancers can be cured with surgery or other types of treatments that affect only the spot on the skin.

The treatment plan thats best for you will depend on:

• The stage and grade of the cancer
• The chance that a type of treatment will cure the cancer or help in some way
• Your age and overall health
• Your feelings about the treatment and the side effects that come with it

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What Is A Biopsy

A proper diagnosis of cancer in the skin is made possible through biopsy. We will remove a skin tissue sample and send it to a laboratory. A pathologist will then examine your samples and look for abnormal cells that could be cancerous. Through a biopsy, you can also get accurate information about the stage of skin cancer you might have.

For advanced melanoma, we request imaging tests and lymph node biopsy to see whether cancer has affected other parts of the body. Additional evaluation is made possible using any or a combination of the following methods:

• Computed tomography
• Measurement of lactate dehydrogenase levels

Basal Cell And Squamous Cell Survival Rates

Because basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas are lower-risk skin cancers, theres little information on survival rates based on stage.

Both types of cancer have a very high cure rate. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate for basal cell carcinoma is 100 percent. The five-year survival rate for squamous cell carcinoma is 95 percent.

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Surgical Procedures For Basal & Squamous Cell Skin Cancers

Basal or squamous cell skin cancers may need to be removed with procedures such as electrodessication and curettage, surgical excision, or Mohs surgery, with possible reconstruction of the skin and surrounding tissue.

Squamous cell cancer can be aggressive, and our surgeons may need to remove more tissue. They may also recommend additional treatments for advanced squamous cell cancer, such as medications or radiation therapyenergy beams that penetrate the skin, killing cancer cells in the body.

Basal cell cancer is less likely to become aggressive, but if it does, our doctors may use surgery and other therapies to treat it.

External Beam Radiation Therapy

External beam radiation therapy may be used to treat skin cancer itself or to relieve pain from cancer that has spread.

• Radiation oncologists deliver external beam radiation therapy to the cancer from a machine outside your body.
• Skin cancer is often treated with superficial forms of radiation. That means the radiation only penetrates only a short distance below the surface.
• Doctors target the radiation beams at your tumor, giving more radiation to the skin cancer while keeping it away from underlying organs.
• Treatments are usually scheduled every day, Monday through Friday, for several weeks to accurately deliver radiation to the cancer.
• Treatments are painless and take less than half an hour each, start to finish.
• Your treatment schedule will depend on your cancer, but it usually requires daily treatments for one or more weeks.
• Radiation therapy is often given in addition to surgery, chemotherapy or biologic therapy.

Skin High Dose Rate Brachytherapy may be used to treat skin cancer and minimize the amount of radiation and side effects on nearby healthy tissues

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Treatment For Metastatic Cancer

There are treatments for most types of metastatic cancer. Often, the goal of treating metastatic cancer is to control it by stopping or slowing its growth. Some people can live for years with metastatic cancer that is well controlled. Other treatments may improve the quality of life by relieving symptoms. This type of care is called palliative care. It can be given at any point during treatment for cancer.

The treatment that you may have depends on your type of primary cancer, where it has spread, treatments youve had in the past, and your general health. To learn about treatment options, including clinical trials, find your type of cancer among the PDQ® Cancer Information Summaries for Adult Treatment and Pediatric Treatment.

What Are The Types Of Testicular Cancer

Most testicular cancers are germ cell tumors. There are two main types of testicular cancer.

Seminomas grow and spread slowly. There are two subtypes

• Classical seminoma: This is the most common and usually happens in men ages 25 to 45.
• Spermatocytic seminoma: Commonly occurs in older men and usually does not spread.

Nonseminomas grow and spread more quickly. They usually consist of multiple types of cancer cells, including

• Embryonal carcinoma: Contains cells look like cells from embryos under microscopic examination.
• Yolk sac carcinoma: These cells look like the sac that surrounds the embryos and usually occurs in children.
• Choriocarcinoma: Usually rare and spreads to the rest of the body quickly.
• Teratoma: A rare tumor that contains other tissue and organs, including teeth and hair.

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How Can I Help My Child Live With Skin Cancer

If your child has skin cancer, you can help him or her during treatment in these ways:

• Your child may have trouble eating. A dietitian or nutritionist may be able to help.

• Your child may be very tired. He or she will need to learn to balance rest and activity.

• Get emotional support for your child. Counselors and support groups can help.

• Keep all follow-up appointments.

• Keep your child out of the sun.

After treatment, check your child’s skin every month or as often as advised.

Symptoms If Cancer Has Spread To The Lymph Nodes

Lymph nodes are part of a system of tubes and glands in the body that filters body fluids and fights infection.

The most common symptom if cancer has spread to the lymph nodes is that they feel hard or swollen. Swollen lymph nodes in the neck area can make it hard to swallow.

Cancer cells can also stop lymph fluid from draining away. This might lead to swelling in the neck or face due to fluid buildup in that area. The swelling is called lymphoedema.

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Key Points About Skin Cancer In Children

• Skin cancer is rare in children.

• Skin cancer is more common in people with light skin, light-colored eyes, and blond or red hair.

• Follow the ABCDE rule to tell the difference between a normal mole and melanoma.

• Biopsy is used to diagnose skin cancer.

• Skin cancer can be treated with surgery, medicine, and radiation.

Staying out of the sun is the best way to prevent skin cancer.

Treating Stage 4 Melanoma

If melanoma comes back or spreads to other organs it’s called stage 4 melanoma.

In the past, cure from stage 4 melanoma was very rare but new treatments, such as immunotherapy and targeted treatments, show encouraging results.

Treatment for stage 4 melanoma is given in the hope that it can slow the cancer’s growth, reduce symptoms, and extend life expectancy.

You may be offered surgery to remove other melanomas that have grown away from the original site. You may also be able to have other treatments to help with your symptoms, such as radiotherapy and medicine.

If you have advanced melanoma, you may decide not to have treatment if it’s unlikely to significantly extend your life expectancy, or if you do not have symptoms that cause pain or discomfort.

It’s entirely your decision and your treatment team will respect it. If you decide not to receive treatment, pain relief and nursing care will be made available when you need it. This is called palliative care.

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What Is The Prognosis For Skin Cancer

Although the number of skin cancers in the United States continues to rise, more and more skin cancers are being caught earlier, when they are easier to treat. Thus, illness and death rates have decreased.

When treated properly, the cure rate for both basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma approaches 95%. The remaining cancers recur at some point after treatment.

• Recurrences of these cancers are almost always local , but they often cause significant tissue destruction.
• Less than 1% of squamous cell carcinomas will eventually spread elsewhere in the body and turn into dangerous cancer.

In most cases, the outcome of malignant melanoma depends on the thickness of the tumor at the time of treatment.

• Thin lesions are almost always cured by simple surgery alone.
• Thicker tumors, which usually have been present for some time but have gone undetected, may spread to other organs. Surgery removes the tumor and any local spread, but it cannot remove distant metastasis. Other therapies, new targeted agents or older approaches such as radiation therapy or chemotherapy, are used to treat the metastatic tumors.
• Malignant melanoma causes more than 75% of deaths from skin cancer.
• Of the approximately 70,000 malignant melanomas diagnosed in the United States in 2007, the vast majority were cured. Still, thousands of people die of melanoma each year.

Medical Treatment For Skin Cancer

Surgical removal is the mainstay of skin cancer treatment for both basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas. For more information, see Surgery.People who cannot undergo surgery may be treated by external radiation therapy. Radiation therapy is the use of a small beam of radiation targeted at the skin lesion. The radiation kills the abnormal cells and destroys the lesion. Radiation therapy can cause irritation or burning of the surrounding normal skin. It can also cause fatigue. These side effects are temporary. In addition, topical chemotherapy creams have been FDA approved for the treatment of certain low-risk nonmelanoma skin cancers. Patients with advanced or many basal cell carcinomas are sometimes prescribed oral pills to block the growth of these cancers. Side effects include muscle spasms, hair loss, taste changes, weight loss and fatigue.

In advanced cases of melanoma, immune therapies, vaccines, or chemotherapy may be used. These treatments are typically offered as clinical trials. Clinical trials are studies of new therapies to see if they can be tolerated and work better than existing therapies.

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Stages Of Skin Cancer

If you receive a skin cancer diagnosis, the next step is to identify its stage.

Staging is how doctors determine whether the cancer has spread to other parts of your body. Staging is common with melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma, because these cancers are more likely to spread.

Typically, basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas dont involve staging. These skin cancers are easily treated and dont usually spread. However, your doctor may recommend staging for larger lesions.

Staging is based on the size of the growth and whether it has high-risk features. High-risk features include:

• larger than 2 millimeters thick
• spreads into the lower levels of the skin
• spreads into the space around a nerve
• appears on the lips or ears
• appears abnormal under a microscope

Heres a general breakdown of skin cancer stages:

• Stage 0. The cancer hasnt spread to surrounding areas of the skin.
• Stage 1. The cancer is 2 centimeters across or less, with no high-risk features.
• Stage 2. The cancer is more than 2 cm across and has a least two high-risk features.
• Stage 3. The cancer has spread to the bones in the face or nearby lymph nodes.
• Stage 4. The cancer has spread to the lymph nodes or internal organs.

What Is Metastatic Cancer

In metastasis, cancer cells break away from where they first formed , travel through the blood or lymph system, and form new tumors in other parts of the body. The metastatic tumor is the same type of cancer as the primary tumor.

Cancer that spreads from where it started to a distant part of the body is called metastatic cancer. For many types of cancer, it is also called stage IV cancer. The process by which cancer cells spread to other parts of the body is called metastasis.

When observed under a microscope and tested in other ways, metastatic cancer cells have features like that of the primary cancer and not like the cells in the place where the metastatic cancer is found. This is how doctors can tell that it is cancer that has spread from another part of the body.

Metastatic cancer has the same name as the primary cancer. For example, breast cancer that spreads to the lung is called metastatic breast cancer, not lung cancer. It is treated as stage IV breast cancer, not as lung cancer.

Sometimes when people are diagnosed with metastatic cancer, doctors cannot tell where it started. This type of cancer is called cancer of unknown primary origin, or CUP. See the Carcinoma of Unknown Primary page for more information.

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Stem Cell Or Bone Marrow Transplant

A stem cell transplant, sometimes called bone marrow transplant, replaces damaged blood-forming cells with healthy ones. The procedure takes place following large-dose chemotherapy or radiation therapy to kill cancer cells and to stop your stem cells from producing cancerous cells.

Stem cell transplants can be used for several types of cancer, including multiple myeloma and some kinds of leukemia.

There Are Four Common Types Of Skin Biopsies:

The dermatologist will never shave off or cauterize a growth that might be melanoma. An excisional biopsy will be performed, or, if the growth is too large to be removed entirely, a tissue sample will be taken.

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What Are The Types Of Skin Cancer

The main types of skin cancers are

Basal cell carcinoma usually occurs in sun-exposed areas of the body, such as the face, lips or neck. Basal cell carcinoma may present as

• A pearly or waxy bump
• A flat, flesh or brownish scar-like lesion
• An ulcer that bleeds and has crusting
• An ulcer heals and recurs quickly

Squamous cell carcinoma

Squamous cell carcinoma usually arises in sun-exposed areas of the body, such as the face, ears, hands or legs. People with darker skin tones may develop squamous cell carcinoma on areas that are not exposed to the sun. Squamous cell carcinoma presents as

• A firm, red nodule

Melanoma

Melanoma can develop anywhere on the body. It may arise from an existing mole that becomes cancerous or from normal skin cells. Melanoma tends to occur on the face or the trunk in men. In women, it tends to occur on the legs. Melanoma can occur on areas not exposed to the sun. Melanoma can affect people of all skin tones but it is more common in people who have lighter skin tones. Melanoma presents as

• A large brownish spot with darker speckles
• A mole that changes in color, size or feel or bleeds
• A large brownish patch or spot
• A small lesion with an irregular border with areas that appear red, pink, white, blue or blue-black
• Pain, itching or burning of the lesions

Rare types of skin cancers

Other rare types of skin cancer that may occur are

Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma Is Diagnosed With A Biopsy

If your doctor thinks you may have a soft tissue sarcoma, a biopsy will be done. The type of biopsy will be based on the size of the tumor and where it is in the body. There are three types of biopsy that may be used:

• Incisional biopsy: The removal of part of a lump or a sample of tissue.
• Core biopsy: The removal of tissue using a wide needle.
• Excisional biopsy: The removal of an entire lump or area of tissue that doesnt look normal.

Samples will be taken from the primary tumor, lymph nodes, and other suspicious areas. A pathologist views the tissue under a microscope to look for cancer cells and to find out the grade of the tumor. The grade of a tumor depends on how abnormal the cancer cells look under a microscope and how quickly the cells are dividing. High-grade tumors usually grow and spread more quickly than low-grade tumors.

Because soft tissue sarcoma can be hard to diagnose, patients should ask to have tissue samples checked by a pathologist who has experience in diagnosing soft tissue sarcoma.

The following tests may be done on the tissue that was removed:

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