Most basal cell carcinomas can be removed with surgery if they are found early, however, the course of treatment for BCC depends on the size and location of the tumour. The patient’s age, medical history and health status also needs to be considered when deciding the course of treatment. Some of these treatment options are listed below. Discuss which treatment options are best for you with your doctor or specialist.
Topical Chemotherapy medicines put directly on the skin as a cream or gel (called topical). 5-fluorouracil 5-FU (Efudex, Actikerall) and imiquimod are chemotherapy medications for the topical treatment of superficial BCCs with cure rates of 80-90% with very low risk for scarring.
An oral medicine called – vismodegib (Erivedge) is used to treat more severe cases of BCC . It is a pill that you must take every day for the treatment of adult patients with histologically confirmed metastatic basal cell carcinoma or with locally advanced basal cell carcinoma inappropriate for surgery or radiotherapy.
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This procedure involves your doctor removing the cancerous tissue and a surrounding margin of healthy skin. In some cases, your doctor may recommend removing additional normal skin around the tumour. This is known as a wide excision. Simple excision is a standard procedure for low-risk BCC.
During this procedure, your doctor removes the cancerous tumour layer by layer, examining each layer under a microscope until no abnormal cells remain. This procedure allows the surgeon to be sure that the entire growth is removed while avoiding taking excessive amount of surrounding healthy skin.
This form of surgery has the highest rate of success in treating BCC, and is often used to treat large, recurrent tumours or tumours located in difficult-to-treat areas such as the face, eyes, ears, nose, hands, feet and shins, sparing as much normal tissue as possible.
This treatment uses high-energy beams, to kill cancer cells or slow their growth by damaging the cancer cell’s DNA. Cancer cells whose DNA is damaged beyond repair will stop dividing or die. This may be an option for treating deeper tumours, or those that have a risk of becoming recurrent. It may also be used in people who are not candidates for surgery.
Once the tumour has been removed, the base and edges of the biopsy site are treated with liquid nitrogen. This freezes the cancerous cells and burns during treatment, causing the area to blister and then scab over in 1 to 2 weeks.
ED and C treatment involves removing the surface of the visible tumour with a scraping instrument (curet) and then searing the base of the wound with an electric needle. This is intended to kill off any remaining cancer cells and help to stop the bleeding.
This treatment combines photosensitizing drugs and light to treat superficial skin cancers. During this procedure, a liquid drug that makes cancer cells sensitive to light is applied to the skin. Following this, a light that destroys the cancer cells is shined on the prepped area.
In Canada, the estimated life-time cost of a newly diagnosed BCCs, including early disease stages and disease recurrence, in 2011 was of CAN$1.1 million in indirect costs and 0.6 million in intangible costs.
Images of Basal Cell Carcinoma
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