Skin Cancer Clinic

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Full Body Skin Examination

Your appointment will involve a thorough examination of your skin — from the top of your scalp to the bottoms of your feet.

You will take off all your clothes and put on a medical exam gown. Your doctor will ask if you have any moles that concern you.

Then, she will then look at every inch of your body -- from your face, chest, arms, back, and legs to less-visible places like your scalp, between your toes, and the soles of your feet.

Your skin will first be examined with a dermatoscope, which is a special skin microscope, which allows the doctor to see beneath the skin to decide regarding a suspicious skin lesion or mole. The procedure is completely painless. If the doctor finds a suspicious spot, they might take a photograph to be recorded and analysed, and they might take a biopsy which is a sample of the skin.

Biopsy of Skin Lesions

The process involves extraction of sample cells or tissues for examination to determine the presence or extent of a disease. The tissue is generally examined under a microscope by a pathologist.

This helps confirm the diagnosis, the depth of the cancer, and the extent to which it has spread, which allows us to determine the appropriate treatment.

There are three ways a biopsy can be performed;

Cryotherapy

A procedure in which an extremely cold liquid or an instrument called a cryoprobe is used to freeze and destroy abnormal tissue. A cryoprobe is cooled with substances such as liquid nitrogen, liquid nitrous oxide, or compressed argon gas. Cryotherapy may be used to treat certain types of cancer and some conditions that may become cancer. Also called cryoablation and cryosurgery.

Total Body Photography

"Early diagnosis of melanoma appears essential and skin screening, defined as a visual inspection of the whole body, may be one method of achieving it."

Total body photography (also known as total body imaging, TBP, whole body screening, or whole body imaging) is the process of taking a set of high quality images of a patient's body parts for lesion tracking, comparing, and monitoring purposes

The purpose of total body photography is to capture and refer to a baseline of patient images useful for managing and tracking any potential changes over time. This technique is encouraged to be used in addition to patient self-exams, as they are likely to notice any changes to their own skin. When combined, this method promotes the early detection of melanoma and other skin cancers, especially in cases where dermoscopic features of the lesions may yet to be recognizable.