Skin Cancer Treatment Options in Paducah, KY

Skin Cancer Treatment Options in Paducah, KY Healthtalk Transcript

John A. Ballert, MD, Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Peter Locken, MD, Radiation Oncology
Baptist Health Paducah

John Ballert, MD:

When a patient has a suspicious lesion that could represent a skin cancer, or if it is biopsy-proven skin cancer, oftentimes either the primary care physician or the dermatologist will send you to us to discuss your options, because they're not all surgical. Sometimes radiation, immunotherapy or even chemotherapy are all options. It really depends upon the size of the cancer, the location of the cancer, the patient's status, and what they wish as their desire to treat that cancer.

Peter Locken, MD:

In the treatment of skin cancer, we look at a multidisciplinary approach. A lot of times, surgery is the preferred option or approach, and many times that's all you need. If it gets to the point where they're talking about more extensive surgery, disfiguring surgery that requires reconstructive surgery, or removal of parts of your ear or nose, then that's the benefit of having a multidisciplinary team that we have here at Baptist Health. We have the benefit of reconstructive surgeons who can perform the excision and the reconstruction. We have the option of radiation — that treatment modality can avoid surgery in many cases. That's where it might benefit having a multidisciplinary approach to see what other alternatives or therapies there are for skin cancer.

John Ballert, MD:

I think it's our responsibility to let patients know what those treatments are so they can make an informed decision on how they want to proceed.