Diagnosis
A skin cancer diagnosis often starts with an exam of your skin. A healthcare professional might remove some skin to test it for cancer.
Skin cancer exam
A healthcare professional might start by asking about your symptoms and looking at your skin.
Skin cancer biopsy
A biopsy is a procedure to remove a sample of tissue for testing in a lab. To get a piece of skin, a healthcare professional may use a cutting tool to cut away some or all of the worrying skin growth. Often a skin biopsy happens in a healthcare professional's office. Medicine numbs the area so you won't feel pain.
The skin tissue sample goes to a lab for testing. Tests can show whether the sample contains cancer cells.
Skin cancer staging tests
Some people with skin cancer may need other tests to find out whether the cancer has spread. This is called cancer staging. The stage of the cancer tells the healthcare team about its size and whether it has spread.
Not everyone with skin cancer needs cancer staging. Most skin cancers don't spread. For example, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma aren't likely to spread. These are the most common types of skin cancer. If your healthcare professional thinks there's a risk that your cancer may have spread, you might have staging tests. The cancer is more likely to spread if it grows large or if it's a kind of skin cancer that often spreads, such as melanoma.
Skin cancer staging tests might include:
- Imaging tests. Imaging tests make pictures of the inside of the body. The pictures might show the size of the skin cancer and whether it has spread. Imaging tests might include computerized tomography scans, also called CT scans, and magnetic resonance imaging scans, also called MRI scans.
- Sentinel lymph node biopsy. A sentinel lymph node biopsy is a procedure to remove some lymph nodes for testing. When skin cancer spreads, it typically goes to the lymph nodes first. The sentinel nodes are the ones where the skin cancer is most likely to spread first. If these nodes don't have any signs of cancer, it's likely that the cancer hasn't spread.
Skin cancer stages
Your healthcare team uses the results of these tests to give your cancer a stage. The stages of skin cancer range from 0 to 4. Exactly what these numbers mean depends on the kind of skin cancer and where it happens on the body. In general, the lower numbers mean the skin cancer is small and only affects the outer layer of the skin. As the skin cancer grows deeper into the skin or spreads, the stages get higher. A stage 4 skin cancer often is a cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes or to other parts of the body.
Treatment
Treatment for skin cancer can involve surgery to remove the cancer or treatments applied to the skin to kill the cancer cells. Sometimes stronger cancer treatments are needed for skin cancer. These might include radiation therapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy.
Skin cancer treatments can include:
- Skin creams. Some medicines for skin cancer come as skin creams that you apply to the area of cancer.
- Curettage and electrodessication. This treatment involves removing the top of the skin cancer with a scraping tool called a curet. Then an electric needle is used to sear the base of the cancer.
- Photodynamic therapy. Photodynamic therapy is a two-stage treatment that combines light energy with a medicine called a photosensitizer. The photosensitizer kills the cancer cells when activated by light.
- Surgery. Skin cancer surgery often involves removing the cancer and some of the healthy tissue around it.
- Mohs surgery. Mohs surgery involves removing the skin cancer layer by layer. Each time a layer is removed, the surgeon uses a microscope to look for cancer cells. The surgery continues until no cancer cells are left. This kind of surgery lets the surgeon take out the cancer without removing too much of the healthy skin around it.
- Radiation therapy. Radiation therapy treats cancer with powerful energy beams.
- Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy treats cancer with strong medicines.
- Targeted therapy. Targeted therapy for cancer is a treatment that uses medicines that attack specific chemicals in the cancer cells. By blocking these chemicals, targeted treatments can cause cancer cells to die.
- Immunotherapy. Immunotherapy for cancer is a treatment with medicine that helps the body's immune system kill cancer cells. The immune system fights off diseases by attacking germs and other cells that shouldn't be in the body. Cancer cells survive by hiding from the immune system. Immunotherapy helps the immune system cells find and kill the cancer cells.
More Information
Clinical trials
Explore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition.
Preparing for your appointment
Make an appointment with a doctor or other healthcare professional if you have any skin changes that worry you. If your healthcare professional thinks you might have skin cancer, that person may refer you to a specialist. Often this is a doctor who diagnoses and treats skin conditions, called a dermatologist.
Appointments can be brief, so it's a good idea to be prepared. Here's some information to help you get ready.
What you can do
Ask a family member or friend to go with you to the appointment to help you remember the information you get.
Make a list of:
- Your medical history, including other conditions for which you've been treated.
- All the medicines, vitamins and natural remedies you take, including doses.
- Questions to ask your healthcare team.
Some basic questions to ask about skin cancer include:
- Do I have skin cancer?
- What type of skin cancer do I have?
- Will I need other tests?
- How quickly does my type of skin cancer grow and spread?
- What are my treatment options?
- What are the potential risks of each treatment?
- Will surgery leave a scar?
- Do I have an increased risk of getting more skin cancers?
- How can I reduce my risk of more skin cancers?
- Should I have regular skin exams to check for skin cancer?
- Should I see a specialist? What will that cost, and will my insurance cover it?
- Is there a generic alternative to the medicine you're prescribing for me?
- Are there brochures or other printed material that I can take with me? What websites do you recommend?
- What will determine whether I should plan for a follow-up visit?
Ask any other questions that you think of during your appointment.
What to expect from your doctor
Your healthcare professional likely will ask about your symptoms. Be ready to answer questions such as:
- When did you first notice your skin changes?
- Have you noticed a skin lesion that has grown or changed?
- Do you have a skin lesion that bleeds or itches?
- How bad are your symptoms?