• Cancer

    Living With Cancer: Treating skin cancer

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Skin cancer: Diagnosis and treatment
Health care providers use numbers to indicate a cancer's stage. Stage 1 cancers are small and limited to the area where they began. Stage 4 indicates advanced cancer that has spread to other areas of the body. For skin cancer, the stage, as well as the size, type, depth and location of the lesions, helps determine which treatment options will be most effective. Small skin cancers limited to the surface of the skin may not require treatment beyond an initial skin biopsy that removes the entire growth. If additional treatment is needed, options may include freezing, excisional surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and biological therapy. Learn more about the diagnosis and treatment options for skin cancer.

Prostatectomy
Prostatectomy includes a number of surgical procedures to remove part or all of the prostate gland. Prostatectomy can be performed in several ways, depending on the condition involved and recommended treatment approach. Most often, prostatectomy is performed to treat localized prostate cancer. Learn about the risks, and what you can expect during and after the procedure.

Gene expression profiling for breast cancer
Gene expression profiling tests analyze several genes within your cancer cells to predict your risk of cancer recurrence. The results help health care providers determine who may benefit from additional treatment after surgery. For women with early-stage breast cancer that is sensitive to hormones, gene expression profiling tests are used to determine whether they are likely to benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. And there are many gene expression profiling tests being studied in clinical trials. Learn more from Dr. Sandhya Pruthi, a Mayo Clinic general internal medicine physician and past director of the Mayo Clinic Breast Diagnostic Clinic.

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