Treatment of Melanoma
The treatment of skin cancer is similar to that of other cancers, but, unlike many internal cancers, it is easier to access the cancer to remove it completely. Surgery is the most common treatment for melanoma.
Surgery involves removing the lesion and some of the normal tissue around it. A biopsy may be taken at the same time.
If melanoma covers a large area of skin, a skin graft may be necessary. If the cancer may have penetrated into the lymph nodes, a lymph node biopsy may be performed.
Other, less common treatments for skin cancer include:
__chemotherapy
__biological therapy, using drugs that work with the immune system
Rarely, photodynamic therapy, which uses a combination of light and drugs, and radiation are used.