[PmbPhy (OP)]

I was diagnosed Tuesday with Basal Cell Carcinoma. It started out with a mole on my nose that I've never seen before. I was going to ignore it, i.e. wait to see if it grew larger. It grew larger. My surgeon told me it was Basal Cell Carcinoma.

How dangerous is this. I'd normally search the internet about it but I'm kind of in stun mode.

[Bored chemist]

Here's the good news.
"Prognosis is excellent if the appropriate method of treatment is used in early primary basal-cell cancers. "
From WIKI.
Get it treated.

[chris]

Hi Pete

BCCs sound frightening, but if you have to have a cancer, these are the ones that you want to have, because usually they are completely curable with relatively simple surgery.

They also go by the name "rodent ulcer" and are commonest on sun-exposed skin such as the nose, cheeks / maxilla, and ear pinna.

Left untreated, they progress slowly as a destructive ulceration. Treated by surgical excision down to the basal layer from which they arise they can be cured and do not recur. These cancers almost NEVER spread (metastasise) elsewhere in the body.

I would urge you to have the lesion treated as soon as possible in order to minimise the scale of the surgery required, which will lead to the best cosmetic outcome.

[PmbPhy (OP)]

Hi Pete

BCCs sound frightening, but if you have to have a cancer, these are the ones that you want to have, because usually they are completely curable with relatively simple surgery.

They also go by the name "rodent ulcer" and are commonest on sun-exposed skin such as the nose, cheeks / maxilla, and ear pinna.

Left untreated, they progress slowly as a destructive ulceration. Treated by surgical excision down to the basal layer from which they arise they can be cured and do not recur. These cancers almost NEVER spread (metastasise) elsewhere in the body.

I would urge you to have the lesion treated as soon as possible in order to minimise the scale of the surgery required, which will lead to the best cosmetic outcome.

Thanks Chris. What would I do without you?

I'm going to make an appointment with a surgeon asap. It's a weird month coming up. Seems that I'll be having three surgeries now. Finally I can get the good drugs! Lol

[chris]

Let us know how you get on. If you can bear it, please consider posting a photo of the lesion (you can obscure the rest of the field to anonymise yourself) because many other people may have the opportunity to learn or obtain reassurance from your story, and images of these things - so people can recognise them - are really helpful.

[PmbPhy (OP)]

Let us know how you get on. If you can bear it, please consider posting a photo of the lesion (you can obscure the rest of the field to anonymise yourself) because many other people may have the opportunity to learn or obtain reassurance from your story, and images of these things - so people can recognise them - are really helpful.

Done! When the surgeon took the biopsy it changed what it looked like. Now it just looks like a small scar with redness around it and a weird looking center. Here it is, after the biopsy:


cancer.jpg (14.34 kB . 294x283 - viewed 7013 times)

I got to be honest with you. I'm sure not looking forward to the surgery. It's done by a plastic surgeon so I'm confident of the results to come. Just not looking forward to the healing process. I bet it will be painful. I hope this opiate scare won't prevent the from giving me opiates for the surgical pain. I doubt it though. I'm sure I'll be okay. Thanks for the support!

[alancalverd]

A good friend with professorial status in such matters was recently diagnosed with BCC, to which his learned response was "oh bugger - better get it fixed", and thus it was, within a couple of weeks. No big deal. Best wishes, Pete - it's just one of the annoyances that accompanies wisdom and experience.

[chris]

Are they doing it under local anaesthetic, or general?

[PmbPhy (OP)]

Are they doing it under local anaesthetic, or general?

General. It's done by a plastic surgeon since its on my face. They basically have to gorge out everything which could be cancer, then stretch part of my face over the remaining hole and sew it up. Who'd want to be awake for that?

[chris]

For small lesions, local is often okay; that said, some plastic surgeons prefer GA so that they don't have to inject local that could potentially compromise the operating field and make excision more difficult.