Mohs Treatment, Immunotherapy Drugs And Vaccines For Treating Skin Cancers

Mohs micrographic surgery has long been the treatment that cancer specialists utilize to remove basal cell and squamous carcinomas. Experts maintain that both squamous and basal carcinomas are the two most common skin cancers that patients suffer from. It is a precise procedure during which the surgeon removes one thin layer of tissue at a time in order to learn whether cancer cells are present in the tissue. Margin-free tissue samples mean you do not have to undergo cancer surgery. The uniqueness of Mohs procedure pinpoints just where cancer cells are located when the cells cannot be seen clearly by your physician.

Treatment With Mohs

The uniqueness of Mohs surgery dismisses the need to form an estimate about the depth of your skin cancer growth. Your Mohs surgeon only removes the tissue cancer cells discovered. This allows the physician to save as much of your normal tissue as possible due to the tissue-by-tissue removal process. Mohs is not only used for basal and squamous cell procedures but for melanomas as well.

Using Mohs For Melanoma Cancer Testing

Mohs is also now being used to identify melanoma cancer cells, which is a departure from the way melanoma cells were indentified in the past. Scientists credit Mohs surgeons' ability to identify melanoma cells to the development of special stains that pinpoint melanoma cancer cells. The age-old fear that melanoma cells could end up metastasizing if missed under microscopic melanoma tests has been put to rest with the use of newly developed special stains. 

Special stains called immunocytochemistry stains use ingredients that adhere to melanocytes pigment cells, which researchers say better highlight melanoma cancer cells. This enables the microscope to capture and present clearer pictures of cancerous cells.

Researchers say the use of excised frozen tissue sections that contain a melanoma antigen help to locate melanocytes, which then leads to discovery of melanomas. Regular margin checks thereafter determine whether additional surgery must be performed.

When no signs of cancer cells are observed, surgery ends.  The Mohs' procedure is a huge benefit in melanoma testing. However, other newer types of melanoma therapies are emerging as scientists search for additional promising treatments for skin cancer.

Immunotherapy And Vaccines

Scientists say that newer immunotherapy therapy drugs have been discovered that help advanced melanoma patients live longer lives. Clinical trials using vaccines are also in progress. Most of the vaccines are described as still being in experimental stages. In the past vaccines were used to help weaken other types of diseases, but researchers hope that vaccines may eventually be discovered to help destroy melanoma cancer cells. 

For more information about skin cancer treatments, contact a company like TrueSkin Dermatology & Surgery, Inc.