Skin Cancer Cream Treatments

Skin cancer is a form of cancer characterized by abnormally shaped growths on the skin that typically occur as a result of extended exposure to the sun. Skin cancer is highly treatable, but only if diagnosed and treated early. There are a number of treatments available to treat skin cancer, including a few topical creams used to treat early-stage skin cancer.

Symptoms

• Skin cancer usually develops in an area that has received frequent exposure to ultraviolet rays, although it can form in areas that are generally covered. Symptoms are generally type specific and include: a small bump not unlike a pearl on the ears, neck and face or a flat lesion, either brown or flesh colored, on the chest or back (basal cell carcinoma); a red nodule that's typically firm or a flat, crusty lesion located on the face, ears, lips, neck, arms and hands (squamous cell carcinoma); and dark, misshapen lesions or moles that can form anywhere on the body (melanoma). Symptoms for the remaining types of skin cancers vary (kaposi sarcoma, merkel cell carcinoma, sebaceous gland carcinoma), though these forms are quite rare. For a complete list of symptoms and more information on proper diagnosis, visit SkinCancer.org.

Treatment

• Treatment for skin cancer involves a mix of therapies and surgeries, often combined with radiation therapy and chemotherapy for severe cases. There are, however, a small number of topical creams that can be prescribed to treat early-stage skin cancer and pre-cancerous lesions. According to Dr. Kevin Berman of HealthCentral.com, there are two principle types of skin cancer creams: 5-fluorouracil and imiquimod.

  Primarily used as an intravenous chemotherapy drug, 5-fluorouracil, works by hindering the growth and development of cancer cells. Marketed under the names efudex and carac, it causes the skin to turn red and become highly irritated as it works.

  Imiquimod, which is normally used to treat genital warts, activates the immune system to work more effectively against the cancer. It's marketed under the name aldara, and like 5-fluorouracil, irritates the skin and turns it red while it works.

  Both of these drugs are used primarily for the treatment of pre-squamous cell carcinoma lesions known as actinic keratoses and for early-stage basal cell carcinomas. When the pain of cryotherapy (freezing the lesions off) becomes too great due to an increased amount of lesions, these creams are often utilized to avoid the associated pain. The creams are typically used anywhere from several weeks to several months depending on the size and severity of the lesion. The duration of treatment will ultimately be decided by your doctor, and frequent follow-ups should be scheduled to monitor your progress because there is no way to determine if the cream has been effective without a biopsy. This and all other considerations should be discussed at length with your doctor before utilizing this creams as an alternative to surgery or other treatments.

  Another form of treatment is known as a retinoid, which can be administered in the form of a tablet or a topical cream. A commonly used form of retinoid, which is similar to vitamin A, is tretinoin, and it can be used to treat basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and actinic keratosis.

Prevention

• The best way to prevent skin cancer is through the use of sunscreen, which should be used liberally by people who spend extended amounts of time in the sun. This does not treat cancer, but instead prevents harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun from damaging the skin and increasing the risk of cancer developing. Use a sunscreen with a protection factor of at least 15, and try and use sunscreen that contains titanium dioxide and mexoryl.

  Sunscreen should be applied about a half hour before going out into the sun to any area of the skin that's exposed to the sun. It should be re-applied every hour or so, and especially after going swimming.