Just diagnosed with skin cancer: Library

Once your doctor has diagnosed you with skin cancer, you may need to have more tests to find out how advanced the skin cancer is, or what stage it is in. Your doctor will choose treatment options based on the stage of skin cancer.

Basal cell skin cancer rarely spreads, so the only test needed to stage the skin cancer may be a biopsy that removes the whole growth. But if basal cell skin cancer does spread, and for any type of advanced skin cancer, your doctor may want you to have more tests to determine these things:

• How large the tumor is
• How deep is has grown below the top layer of skin
• Whether or not the skin cancer cells have spread to other parts of the body, such as nearby lymph nodes

To the right are examples of organizations and resources you may find helpful. Click on the links to visit those websites and learn more.

Each treatment option works in a different way and may have side effects. Treatment can include surgery or other techniques for physically removing the cancer, such as freezing, radiation, or laser therapy. Or your doctor may use certain medicines that are designed to kill the skin cancer cells. You may also get a combination of therapies. Work with your healthcare team to make a treatment plan that is right for you.

To the right are examples of organizations and resources you may find helpful. Click on the links to visit those websites and learn more.

Clinical trials for skin cancer are medical studies used to learn more about potential new ways to treat certain types of skin cancer. These studies look at the potential benefits and risks of a new treatment and for whom the treatment may work. Often in a clinical trial, one group of people will get the treatment being studied. The other group will get the treatment normally used to treat that type of cancer.

There are 3 phases of clinical trials:

• Phase I trials test how safe a dose is, how a treatment should be given, and how a treatment affects the body
• Phase II trials test to see if the treatment being studied has an effect on a specific disease and how it affects the body
• Phase III compares the treatment being studied with the treatment usually used to treat that type of skin cancer (standard of care treatment)

Click on the button below to go to the Clinical Trial Finder

To the right are examples of organizations and resources you may find helpful. Click on the links to visit those websites and learn more.

Doing a self-check of your skin at home can help you find changes in the way your skin looks or feels. But only your healthcare provider can diagnose skin cancer. To tell if the change in your skin is from skin cancer, your doctor may do a biopsy. He or she removes a piece of skin, and it is checked under a microscope for skin cancer cells.

Talk with your healthcare team about how to do an at-home skin check and about any other tests you may need.

To the right are examples of organizations and resources you may find helpful. Click on the links to visit those websites and learn more.