skin cancer outlook

Although the number of skin cancers in the United States continues to rise, more and more cancers being caught earlier, because they are easier to treat. Thus, disease and mortality has decreased.

When properly treated, the cure rate for both basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is about 95%. The rest of the cancers recur at some time after treatment.

The recurrence of these cancers are almost always local (not spread elsewhere in the body), but often cause significant tissue destruction.

Less than 1% of squamous cell carcinoma will eventually spread elsewhere in the body and become dangerous cancer.

In most cases, the result of malignant melanoma depends on the thickness of the tumor at the time of treatment.

Thin lesions are almost always cured by simple surgery alone.

More often the tumors, which tend to have some time, but have gone unnoticed, can spread to other organs. Surgery to remove the tumor and local spread, but can not be removed distant metastases. Other treatments such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy, are used to treat metastatic disease.

Malignant melanoma causes more than 75% of all deaths from skin cancer.

Of the estimated 100,000 malignant melanomas diagnosed in the United States in 2007 were by far the most healing. Yet thousands of people die from melanoma each year.