Skin Cancer

St. Elizabeth Healthcare takes a team approach to screening, diagnosing and treating skin cancer. Our primary care doctors, dermatologists and cancer treatment specialists work together to detect skin cancer early. We create personalized treatment plans for the best possible outcomes.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More people are diagnosed with skin cancer than all other cancers combined.
Skin cancer is treatable if detected early. When found early, the 5-year survival rate for melanoma is 99%.
The most important thing you can do to reduce your risk of skin cancer is to protect yourself from the sun and have your skin checked annually.

What You Should Know About Skin Cancer

Your skin is your largest organ — it covers and protects your entire body. However, it is vulnerable to damage from the harmful rays of the sun. When non-melanoma skin cancers are found early, they are very treatable. Melanoma is a more aggressive skin cancer. It accounts for 3% of all skin cancers.

Types of skin cancer include:

Basal cell carcinoma — Basal cell carcinoma is the most common skin cancer and typically appears on sun-damaged skin. It appears as a translucent or glassy pimple-like bump that does not heal or as a slightly elevated pink or discolored patch. These bumps or patches may bleed easily when scraped but do not itch or hurt. Early diagnosis and treatment can prevent damage to surrounding tissue.
Squamous cell carcinoma — More than 200,000 squamous cell carcinoma cases are reported each year in the United States. It appears as thick, crusty or scaly raised bumps or as a non-healing ulcer or a crusted patch of skin. It is the second most common type of skin cancer and can spread to other parts of the body.
Melanoma — Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer. It can spread to other organs through the lymphatic system. Melanoma that is detected and treated early can usually be cured. Once melanoma spreads, curing it becomes more difficult.
Other skin cancers — Rare types of skin cancer include Merkel cell carcinoma, skin lymphoma, Kaposi sarcoma, uveal melanoma and mucosal melanoma..

Make an appointment

For more information, please contact your oncologist or the Cancer Care Center at (859) 301-4000.

Preventing Skin Cancer

Protecting your skin from the sun’s UV rays will reduce your risk of skin cancer. The experts at St. Elizabeth Healthcare also recommend an annual skin check to find suspicious spots or changes to your skin. Other ways to prevent skin cancer include:

Avoid tanning beds.
Avoid the strongest rays of the sun between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Reapply sunscreen every two hours.
Wear sun-protective clothing.
Wear a broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher.

Causes of Skin Cancer

Most skin cancers are caused by previous sun exposure. Protecting your skin is the first line of defense. Anyone can get skin cancer, but risk factors for developing it include:

Blond or red hair.
Blue or green eyes.
Family history of skin cancer.
Light skin tone.
Older age.
Personal history of skin cancer.
Skin that sunburns easily.
Skin with a lot of freckles or moles.

If you have a personal history of skin cancer, we make sure you have access to our specialists so any recurrences can be caught early, when skin cancer is most treatable. Our dermatologists are available to evaluate your skin, and you can send photos of any spots or patches you’re concerned about through our secure MyChart patient portal.

Skin Cancer Screening

Routine screenings are an important tool in detecting skin cancer early, when it is most treatable. It’s important to be familiar with your skin so that you notice any new spots, spots that are different from others, or spots that are changing, itching or bleeding.

St. Elizabeth Healthcare partners with Melanoma Know More , a community program based in Cincinnati that provides education about melanoma. Melanoma Know More provides free skin-check screenings.

Our experts recommend that you do a skin check at home each month. To do a skin check, look at the front and back of your body, using a mirror as necessary. Look for changes in the skin and moles that could indicate melanoma. Remember the ABCDEs of melanoma:

Asymmetry – if you draw a line down the middle of a mole, both sides should look alike. If they don’t, the mole could be cancerous.
Border – if the edges of the mole look irregular or smudged.
Color – a mole that is various shades of brown and other colors.
Diameter – a larger mole that suddenly appears or gets larger rapidly.
Evolution – a mole that changes in any way or becomes tender, itchy, or bleeds.

Genetic Testing for Skin Cancer

We believe in a proactive approach to detecting skin cancer. If you have a family history of cancer or are concerned about your risk, genetic counseling is an option to consider. Genetic counseling provides important information to you and your family about cancer risk and risk reduction and prevention. A blood test can show genetic mutations that may put you at higher risk for developing skin cancer. If your DNA shows you are at risk, we will recommend a more rigorous screening schedule, including additional blood work or PET/CT scan to identify skin cancer as early as possible.

For patients diagnosed with skin cancer, our hereditary cancer program offers information and resources on inherited disease. Genetic testing can help determine how a cancer will respond to treatment — and allow us to develop a laser-focused treatment plan specific to your cancer cells’ anatomy.

Skin Cancer Diagnosis

If your primary care doctor or dermatologist finds a suspicious spot on your skin, you may need a biopsy. A biopsy removes some tissue from the affected area and tests to see if it’s cancerous and what type of skin cancer. Types of biopsies include:

Local excision biopsy – The entire suspicious area is removed. This is typically done with local anesthetic in the doctor’s office. If it is a larger area, we may recommend an outpatient procedure at the hospital.
Punch or shave biopsy – Using a small tool, we remove a round cylinder of skin for testing.

The pathologists who analyze your tissue sample are dermatopathologists — pathologists who specialize in diseases of the skin. If your biopsy reveals cancer, we may run more tests to make sure it hasn’t spread.

Getting a Second Opinion

If you have a diagnosis of skin cancer, you want to make sure you have a team of experts by your side. We can provide a second opinion and present treatment options.

Get a Second Opinion

Skin Cancer Treatments

At St. Elizabeth Healthcare, we believe in caring for you, not just treating your cancer. Our holistic approach means we integrate cancer treatment with care to minimize side effects and help you manage the symptoms that may occur with treatment. Our goal is to make you as comfortable as possible and give you the best quality of life while we use innovative approaches to treat your cancer.

We have a team of doctors that reviews every skin cancer diagnosis. This team — which includes medical oncologists specializing in immunotherapy and precision medicine, surgical oncologists, radiation oncologists, neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, genetic counselors, pathologists, nurses and support staff members — creates a treatment plan that is just right for you.

Your treatment plan may include:

Clinical trials — Innovative drug and genetic therapies that are used to treat skin cancer, including melanoma.
Immunotherapy — Medication therapy which stimulates your own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
Precision medicine— Medication therapy which uses your DNA to specifically target the cells that lead to cancer and stop cancer from forming and spreading.
Radiation therapy — Therapy which uses high-energy radiation to shrink tumors and kill cancer cells.
Surgery — A procedure to remove cancer while preserving as much healthy tissue as possible. At St. Elizabeth we also offer Mohs surgery, a procedure that progressively removes and examines the tissue while you remain in the office to confirm only cancer-free tissue remains.

Treating Advanced Stage Melanoma

At St. Elizabeth, our medical oncologists work with doctors from across the health system to create a customized treatment plan for melanoma that has spread to other parts of your body. Our physicians are experts in immunotherapy and targeted molecular therapies that use your DNA to specifically target cancer cells. We are committed to offering our patients the latest treatment options, including access to cutting-edge clinical trials

Our nurse navigator will help you understand your diagnosis, schedule appointments and guide you every step of the way.

Skin Cancer Surveillance

When you’re diagnosed with skin cancer, you have to remain vigilant. Your care does not end when active treatment is finished. We want to make sure your cancer doesn’t come back — and if it does, we want to make sure we catch it early.

After your cancer is cured, we will continue to see you every three months until we feel yearly monitoring would be safe. Routine screening is a proven method to detect cancer early.

We encourage you to send us pictures of any suspicious spot through our secure online patient portal, MyChart. We may also use more advanced technologies such as blood testing and PET/CT scans to monitor for any recurrence.