Skin Cancer

Lately there has been a large increase in cutaneous cancer due mainly to the fact that in the last 50 years people have been exposed much more to the sun, and also to the decrease of the ozone layer. However, currently the chances of cure of this cancer are higher, so the survival is also very high. This is mainly due to early diagnosis.

There are many types of skin cancers but the most frequent are basal cell carcinoma , epidermoid carcinoma and melanoma. Basal cell carcinoma is the least malignant because it does not metastasize to other regions of the body. Epidermoid carcinoma and melanoma do have the capacity to metastasize, but in these cases early diagnosis is very important, since if we treat them in the initial stages, the survival is practically total .

The importance of an early diagnosis

Dermatologists recommend full body check every year. In this way, in most cases we can detect atypical pigmented lesions and extirpate them before they can progress to melanoma. Likewise, the prognosis of carcinomas will always be related to their early extirpation, which will improve the aesthetic results of surgical treatments, especially when they affect compromised areas such as the face, nose and periorbital region.

In patients who have multiple lesions or atypical lesions, a complementary scan is performed, which is the scanning electron microscopy. This test consists of making a digital record of all the injuries that the patient presents in his body and this way can be made an evolutionary control and detect early changes that may be suggestive of having to remove the lesions. When we detect a suspicious lesion, the surgical excision and anatomopathological analysis. We are also currently using confocal microscopy.

There are people who, because of their skin type or because of their geographic location are more exposed to solar radiation, should exercise extreme caution in the use of photoprotectors. Currently they are being used better than in the last 40 or 50 years and this means that in the future we may have a decrease in skin cancer. It is very important to know that the sun we receive in the first 15 years of life marks much the future of the skin in terms of skin cancer , often the cancerous lesions that appear in adulthood are a consequence of sunburns received in childhood and youth , so it is very important to protect children from the sun all year round, as we live in an area of ​​high ultraviolet radiation.