While it’s not the most deadly, basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer. Fortunately, if it’s caught early, it can usually be fully treated by removing or destroying the cancerous cells.
Because we specialize in diagnosing and eradicating skin cancer, Ali Hendi, MD, and Joanna Dong, MD, have a variety of treatment options we can use to help get rid of basal cell carcinoma.
If you think you might have this kind of skin cancer and you live in Washington, DC, Maryland, or Northern Virginia, visit our office in Chevy Chase, Maryland. We can see if the questionable area is skin cancer and, if so, create a treatment plan designed to eliminate it.
Your basal cells help your body create new skin cells as old ones die. Cancer in these cells usually develops on parts of your body that get a lot of sun, like your:
That said, you can get basal cell carcinoma anywhere, so check your body for signs such as:
If any of those signs sound familiar, come see our team.
We have a handful of ways to treat — and, ideally, eliminate — basal cell carcinoma. We recommend the right one for you based on your skin and the size, location, and symptoms of your basal cell carcinoma.
Mohs surgery is considered the gold standard in basal cell carcinoma treatment. It offers a 99% cure rate and often comes with less scarring than other treatment types.
During Mohs surgery, your provider removes a layer of visible cancerous cells. We then examine the removed layer under a microscope. This allows us to determine if we’ve removed all the cancerous cells. If not, we remove another layer, guided by where we saw cancerous cells in the last layer.
This delivers a high level of precision, meaning we remove all the cancerous cells while protecting as much of your surrounding tissue as possible.
Also called curettage and electrodesiccation, this process means scraping away skin cancer cells with a curette, then treating the area with an electric needle to destroy any cancer cells the curette missed.
It’s a good option if the cancerous cells are still confined to the top layer of your skin.
During this process, we apply liquid nitrogen to freeze and destroy cancer cells. Unlike other treatment options, this one — also called cryotherapy — usually doesn't require any anesthesia. It’s best for superficial basal cell carcinoma.
Excision means cutting out the basal cell carcinoma. It’s a lot like Mohs surgery except it’s less precise and doesn’t require multiple sessions of removing cells. As a result, it’s faster.
We send the excised tissue to the lab to check for the presence of cancerous cells.
Like scraping and freezing, this is a good option if the potential skin cancer is still on the topmost layer of your skin.
If you have basal cell carcinoma, we have options for treating it. To find the right one for your unique skin, call our office at 301-812-4591 to make an appointment or book one online today.
