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Posts Tagged ‘squamous cell carcinoma’

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Are you wearing your hat these days? And the Two Degrees of Dr. Richard Bennett and Elisabeth Shim

Wednesday, September 13th, 2017

Kudos to Dominic Purcell for showing how it is done:
This is how it's done

A little over a year ago, Dr. Bennett was mentioned twice in the international news, the Daily Mail UK, for his work with two actors on network TV. They wanted to show everyone how skin cancer is so common. Today I found out I took care of a teacher at our daughters’ school over a decade ago. How’s that for Back to School Night? I even found a basal cell cancer on Santa Claus! (OK I can’t tell you the details on this one, but trust me, it’s true!) Everyone in LA is 1 or 2 steps removed from our office, I think. It’s better than Kevin Bacon! But Kevin can win this contest if we all make better use of our hats, zinc oxide-based sunscreens and our local dermatologist to screen us for precancers before they need us.

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Posted in Comedy, Entertainment, Mohs surgery, Skin Cancer, sunscreen | No Comments »

Skin cancer incidence

Friday, January 25th, 2013

The Skin Cancer Foundation put out a statement that the incidence of skin cancers is higher than that of breast, lung, colon and prostate combined. This does not include just melanoma, but also non-melanoma skin cancers including basal cell cancer and squamous cell cancer. Preventative exams are key! Not only should you have a dermatologist look at you, but get to know what your skin looks like. This can be tough in certain places, so have a loved one help, and/or use two mirrors. Things can change fast. I just had a patient who had a full exam in August, and now has multiple suspicious moles that just popped up in the past 6 months.

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Posted in Skin Cancer, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Do I need Mohs surgery even if my biopsy site healed well?

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

I get asked this almost every week. “But my biopsy site has healed so well. I put……(fill in the blank-emu oil, vitamin E etc) on it and you can hardly see it!

Yes, it is true that sometimes a biopsy will remove the entire lesion if it is very small. However, just as you might get a breast biopsy or prostate biopsy, if you had cancer diagnosed, you would not consider the biopsy to be a treatment.

A biopsy is simply a test, a sampling. Cancer is microscopic and can be one to several cells thick. While this watch and wait approach would be ok on very tiny basal cell cancers on the back, I would not do this on the face or any tumors such as squamous cell carcinoma that have the potential to metastasize.

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Basal Cell & Squamous Cell Carcinoma Affect Almost Everyone

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Here are some alarming statistics regarding skin cancer in the United States:

  • 1 out of 5 Americans will develop skin cancer within their lifetime
  • The two major forms of non-melanoma skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. 40-50% of Americans age 65 and up will have either basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma at least once
  • In the last 30 years, the number of women under age 40 diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma has doubled and the number diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma has also increased

Both basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas are often diagnosed late because they can look like anything, e.g., a scaly spot, pimple, wart, or cyst, so it is important to have a skin exam.

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Posted in Skin Cancer | No Comments »

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