Are All Mohs Surgeon Qualified to Deal with DFSP Tumor?

Fellowship-trained Mohs surgeon are recognized as the experts in skin cancer management.  To be a fellowship-trained Mohs surgeon requires a year long training period after board certification in Dermatology in what is called cutaneous (skin) oncology (study of cancer). As part of becoming certified the fellowship trained Mohs surgeon is required to perform over 500 Mohs cases in the year, perform complex reconstruction with grafts or flaps of the surgical sites, and manage complex... more

DFSP is a fairly rare tumor. Experience of the Mohs surgeon is going to be very important. Academic centers are more likely to encounter DFSP's on a regular basis. It is important that you find a Mohs surgeon who has been trained in a fellowship. These individuals have seen the volume of cases necessary to encounter DFSP. Because DFSP can have quite a bit of tumor extension (fingers of tumor growing under the skin), you may require a significant reconstruction since this is on your... more

Dear Hope for a cure, DFSP is a notoriously difficult tumor to treat. First, because it is an aggressive tumor and second, because it recurs often. Mohs is the best way to go because it is a tissue sparing technique (the surgeon can look at the tissue while you wait). Given the location, you may want to go to a place where the DFSP can be cleared with Mohs and then you can have facial plastics reconstruction. The problem is that few people will flap an area of DFSP because it can hide... more

Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans characteristically behaves more aggressively each time it recurs. One of the problems of having this lesion on your face is common to skin cancer in general. That is, the surgeon is more reluctant to take a wide margin. Moh's has become increasingly utilized as a treatment for DFSP. Many Moh's Surgeons like to do what is called "slow Moh's". They combine the benefits of frozen sections ( slides are made from fresh tissue at the time of... more