An Oncodermatologist Shares Treatment Updates for Basal and Squamous Cell Skin Cancers from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Which non-melanoma skin cancer treatments are showing promise? Expert Dr. Silvina Pugliese shares updates on treatments for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell cancer.

Silvina Pugliese, M.D., is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Attending Physician at the Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center and Stanford Cancer Institute. Learn more about Dr. Pugliese.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…if you have a diagnosis, a new diagnosis of basal cell cancer and squamous cell cancer, to know that the treatment options that are available to you are often going to be things that are fairly minimally invasive. So you might be recommended to try a topical cream for the earlier variants of basal cell cancer and squamous cell cancer, or you will have an outpatient procedure to have the skin cancers cut out, either with a surgical excision or with the procedure called Mohs micrographic surgery.”

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Transcript:

Mary Leer:

Dr. Pugliese, what promising treatments are available for newly diagnosed patients with non-melanoma skin cancers?

Dr. Silvina Pugliese:

For the purposes of answering this question, I’m going to focus on the two most common types of non-melanoma skin cancer, which are basal cell cancer and squamous cell cancer. And one of the things I tell my patients who are newly diagnosed is letting them know that most basal cancer and most squamous cell cancer can be treated with fairly, and I’ll call them simple procedures or treatment in the sense that most of these skin cancers will not need any radiation or any type of chemotherapy or immunotherapy. So that’s the majority, it’s not all.

But, for example, for basal cell cancer, it’s really just a very low number of patients that have advanced basal cell cancer or metastatic basal cell cancer. For a very early stages of the disease or certain subtypes such as superficial basal cell cancer, which just lives on the top surface of the skin, we can even treat that with a topical medication, such as a topical chemotherapy medication called Fluorouracil or another topical cream called imiquimod (Aldara, Zyclara). For other subtypes of basal cell cancer, which invade a little deeper into the skin, surgical excision is preferred. If it’s in a functionally sensitive area such as the face, for example, this will generally be treated with the type of procedure called Mohs micrographic surgery. 

A very similar treatment algorithm exists for squamous cell cancer. Early squamous cell cancers that are insight to in the very top layer of the skin can also be treated, it’s off-label treatment, but can be treated with topical fluorouracil cream or topical imiquimod cream. And for squamous cell cancers that are more invasive or for squamous cell cancers that have some more aggressive features, those would be treated with surgical excision and in certain areas, Mohs micrographic surgery would be utilized. 

Activation tip for this question is that if you have a diagnosis, a new diagnosis of basal cell cancer and squamous cell cancer, to know that the treatment options that are available to you are often going to be things that are fairly minimally invasive. So you might be recommended to try a topical cream for the earlier variants of basal cell cancer and squamous cell cancer, or you will have an outpatient procedure to have the skin cancers cut out, either with a surgical excision or with the procedure called Mohs micrographic surgery.

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