Overview

Skin tumours can be divided into benign skin tumours and malignant skin tumours. Benign lesions usually grow slowly and do not spread to other places. Malignant skin lesions (skin cancers) can spread locally and also to distant organs. The 3 common types of skin cancers are basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. Skin lesions that exhibit rapid or progressive growth, irregular colour and shape, easy bleeding, itchiness and ulcers that fail to heal should raise suspicion of skin cancers.

Treatment

The mainstay of treatment for skin cancers is wide surgical excision. The main objective is complete clearance of the cancer from the body.

Procedure

Duration of Procedure: 0.5-1 hour or longer, depending on the extent of the cancer
Anaesthesia: Local anaesthesia for small lesions. General anaesthesia for extensive cases
When to Go Home after Surgery: Go home the same day for small lesions. Requires hospital admission for extensive cases
Back to Work: Back to work the next day for cases with small lesions. Cases with extensive lesions require rest of a few days to more than a week
Technique: Wide local excision with the aim to achieve complete clearance of the cancer. After the excision, the residual defect is reconstructed with plastic surgical technique such as local flap, skin grafts, or even free flap in the most advanced cases. The excised specimen will be sent for histopathologic examination to determine the type of skin lesion and the check for margin clearance.

Post-Operative Care

• Recovery time depends on the extent of the surgical excision
• Sutures are removed after 7 days
• Measures for scar prevention (refer to the section Scar Management)
• Regular follow-up is mandatory to detect early recurrence, if any.