As readers of the blog may know, I live in Austin. Our local television station ran a story about a new radiation-based skin cancer treatment that sounded interesting.
The treatment is an FDA approved non-surgical treatment called Superficial Radiation. The claim is that the treatment destroys skin cancer cells without damaging healthy tissue. For maximum effectiveness, you need 8-10 treatments, which last about 15 minutes each. Sounds like normal radiation treatment so far; but the addition of the ultrasound component is what makes this different. Using the ultrasound, they can image what the cancer looks like under the skin and more precisely target it.
I was really excited about this treatment, until they mentioned that it is not suitable for people with melanoma. Apparently it is only effective for basal or squamous cell skin cancer. Melanoma still requires surgical and sometimes chemotherapy to effectively treat it (although the latest immunotherapy options being researched look very promising – if not very expensive in the short-term – as well).
But if you know of someone who has basal or squamous cell skin cancer, there is another option besides the MOHS surgery.