DIAGNOSIS
In diagnosing basal cell carcinoma growths or changes in your skin, your doctor or a skin expert (dermatologist) will ask about your medical history.
Questions may include:
When did you first notice this skin growth or sore?
Has it changed since you have previously seen it?
Is the growth or sore causing you pain?
Has anybody in your family had skin cancer? What kind?
TREATMENT
Various medications are there for basal cell carcinoma. Treatment relies upon the type, area, and size of your cancer, just as your inclinations and capacity to do follow-up visits. Treatment will also depend upon whether this is a first-time or a repeating basal cell carcinoma.
Some treatment choices are available for treating basal cell carcinoma:
- Electrodesiccation and curettage (ED&C)-is commonly used to expel smaller or shallow basal cell carcinomas
- Surgical extraction- your doctor removes the cancer
- Solidifying-this includes killing cancer cells by solidifying them with fluid nitrogen (cryosurgery)
- Mohs procedure-your doctor evacuates the cancer cells layer by layer, looking at each layer under the microscope until no unusual cells remain
- Basal cell carcinoma that spreads to different zones of the body (metastasizes) may be treated with vismodegib (Erivedge) or sonidegib (Odomzo)