Comprehensive Treatment for a Potentially Fatal Cancer of the Skin in the Minneapolis Area

Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer. Early detection is essential to successful treatment. If not detected early, the cancer can spread rapidly, and melanoma removal may be difficult. Melanoma is most commonly found on skin routinely exposed to ultraviolet light from the sun (or tanning beds), but it can form anywhere on the body, including the scalp, genitals, palms, soles of the feet, and under a nail. Areas not exposed to sunlight are more common sites for melanoma to develop in people with darker skin tones. The first indication of the cancer is often a change in an existing mole or a new, pigmented skin growth. Our team provides melanoma removal for Minneapolis-area patients who are experiencing the early stages of the disease.

What Are the Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment Options?

Causes

Though anyone can develop this disease, the risk increases with physical factors such as excessive exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun, tanning beds, or living in a sunny location or at high elevation. Biological factors include having more than 50 moles on the body, large moles, or moles with irregular borders; a history of even just one severe sunburn; fair or freckled skin, skin that does not tan, blond or red hair, or light-colored eyes; a blood relative who has had the same disease; a history of cancer; or a weakened immune system.

Symptoms

See a dermatologist as soon as possible for melanoma removal if you notice the following signs:

  • A mole growing asymmetrically
  • A change in a mole’s color, size, or borders
  • A spot on the skin that is becoming elevated, changing, darkening, bleeding, itching, or painful
  • Streaks under a fingernail or toenail
  • Slowly growing, scar-like patches of skin

Treatment

A dermatologist will take a skin biopsy and examine the sample under a microscope or send it to a laboratory for more analysis before considering melanoma removal. Biopsies may involve complete melanoma removal along with a bit of normal-looking skin or partial melanoma removal for a suspicious area or only the most irregular part of a large mole or growth.

A sentinel lymph node biopsy, x-rays, blood work, and a CT scan may also be done to determine if cancerous cells have spread. Melanoma removal options depend on the depth of the lesion and whether the cancer has spread near the lymph nodes or beyond.

Complete melanoma removal is possible in the disease’s early stages when the skin is taken for a biopsy. A dermatologist will sometimes perform an in-office excision to remove all cancer cells and a margin of normal-looking skin around them. The skin is numbed before the melanoma removal procedure. Mohs surgery may also be done for melanoma removal at the earliest stage.

Other melanoma removal options are used for cancerous growths that have grown deeper into the skin or have spread. These may be treated with chemotherapy (medicine that kills cancerous and some normal cells), immunotherapy (to assist the patient’s immune system in destroying the cancer), a lymphadenectomy (removal of affected lymph nodes), radiation therapy (to kill cancerous and some normal cells), and targeted therapy (drugs that reduce the cancer temporarily).

Best-in-Class Skin Care

Your skin is too important to leave to chance. The Zel Skin team has participated in 100 clinical studies and seen more than 30,000 patients. And, unlike most skin care clinics, we conduct our own research internally to ensure the treatments we provide have been scientifically proven to improve the health of your skin.

*Results may vary per patient. Services vary by location.