How is basal cell carcinoma treated?
Your provider will treat basal cell carcinoma by removing cancer from your body. To remove cancer, your treatment options could include:
- Electrodessication and curettage: Scraping off the cancerous lump with a curette and then burning with a special electric needle.
- Surgery: Removing the cancerous lump or lesion with a scalpel (excision or Mohs surgery).
- Cryotherapy or cryosurgery: Freezing the cancerous lump to remove it.
- Chemotherapy: Using powerful medicines to kill cancerous cells in your body.
- Photodynamic therapy (PDT): Applying blue light and a light-sensitive agent to your skin.
- Laser therapy: Using lasers (high-energy beams) to remove cancer instead of using a scalpel.
Your provider will choose the best treatment option for you and your diagnosis by factoring in your overall health, your age, the location of the cancer and the size of the BCC.
What happens if basal cell carcinoma is left untreated?
If you don’t receive treatment for basal cell carcinoma, the skin cancer can slowly grow in size and invade deeper tissues like muscle and bone and cartilage. The BCC may become painful and ulcerated, which can cause bleeding and infection.
In extremely rare cases, basal cell carcinoma can spread to other parts of your body and cause life-threatening side effects.
What medications treat basal cell carcinoma?
Although rare, if your basal cell carcinoma becomes locally advanced or spreads (metastasizes) to another location in your body, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two medicines:
- Vismodegib: For treatment of locally advanced or metastatic BCC.
- Sonidegib: For locally advanced BCC.
These drugs can be used in people who aren’t good candidates for surgery or radiation therapy. Vismodegib and sonidegib can cause several side effects, most commonly muscle cramps, change in taste and hair thinning. You must not get pregnant while on therapy and for several months after the completion of therapy.
Are there side effects of surgical treatment?
Any type of surgical removal will leave a scar. There’s a low risk of bleeding or infection.
