Treating Basal Cell Carcinoma and Other Skin Cancers with Minimal Scarring
Mohs surgery is an outpatient procedure providing the most accurate means of removing
common types of skin cancer, such as basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, while preserving healthy tissue around a suspect mole or lesion.
Mohs surgery can be more than 98 percent effective at treating certain types of skin
cancer. During the Mohs procedure, all of the tissue around the surgical margins is
evaluated, instead of just a sample.
Mohs surgery is most commonly used for the treatment of skin cancers in the following
circumstances:
- Where the skin cancer is located in a place where scarring is a concern, such as on
the eyelid, ear, nose or lips.
- When the skin cancer has recurred after being treated by another method. A recurrent
cancer can be more difficult to remove because it may grow beneath the scar before
surfacing, resulting in its true borders being difficult to identify.
- When the skin cancer is on an area of the body that is conducive to more aggressive
growth, such as the center of the face.
- When the skin cancer's margins or borders are indistinct, so that it is difficult
to see where skin cancer ends and normal tissue begins.
- When a skin cancer has been surgically removed, but the pathology lab report indicates
that some of the cancer has been left behind. (This may sometimes be described as
the cancer having "positive margins." In these cases, a scar may exist without other
visible evidence of skin cancer.
About Mohs Surgery
SLUCare Locations Offering Mohs Surgery
Center for Specialized Medicine
1225 South Grand
St. Louis, MO 63104
314-977-3420
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SLUCare Des Peres Medical Arts Pavilion II
2315 Dougherty Ferry Road, Suite 200A
Des Peres, MO 63122
314-977-9721
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