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There are two major types of skin cancer.

Melanoma skin cancer, which is life threatening and an extremely serious problem, and then non-melanoma skin cancers, uch as basal cell carcinoma, the most common form, or squamous cell carcinoma.

All of these cancers are potentially dangerous, but melanomas are generally the only type of skin cancer that poses a serious threat to ones life if it's not treated promptly.

If you see a new colored spot on your skin, or if a preexisting mole, or spot that had looked the same for years suddenly starts to change make sure that you get that checked out.

Basal cell, squamous cell and melanoma skin cancers are all treated by surgery. There is really no role for radiation, chemotherapy, or other non-surgical treatments for these tumors.

Fortunately, if the tumors are caught early success rate is extremely high. All three types of skin cancer: basal cell, squamous cell, and melanoma are caused by exposure to the sun. So prevention is very important. Use of sunblock, and also regular examination by your doctor.

When basal cell, squamous cell, or melanoma cancers appear on the face, near the eyes, or the nose, or some sensitive region, we'll often times have a skin cancer surgery specialist remove them, because they can do so in such a way that the size of the defect, or the hole that's created by removing the tumors is kept to a minimum, while they ensure that they get the entire tumor out.

They'll, then, put a patch over the area that they've treated, the patient will come to me, and later the same day, or occasionally the next day, we'll perform a reconstructive procedure to re-establish the anatomy of the area that was treated.

What does that mean? Well, if the tumor is on your eyelid, we want you to have a functioning eyelid, we want it to look as much like a normal eyelid as possible.

And usually, unless the tumors are extremely large patients are quite pleased with the results that they get after reconstruction following removal of the skin cancer.

People who have developed one skin cancer are at risk for developing others. So, it's important to get checked on a regular basis. But don't be scared of skin cancer. It's not going to get better if you ignore it. If there's something that you've seen growing new, changing, or recently appeared, or something that you've never noticed before make sure that you get it checked out.

Skin Cancer Treatment

Doctor Brian Biesman discusses treatment for skin cancer.