What are Skin Tumors?
Surgical diseases of the skin have increased significantly in the last twenty years. The main reason for this increase is the increased effect of Sun Rays on our Earth. The sun's rays are filtered in the atmosphere before reaching the Earth, and the harmful wavelength rays reaching the earth are significantly reduced. Due to the thinning of the ozone layer in the atmosphere, the reach of harmful wavelength Ultraviolet rays to the earth has increased. These increasing harmful rays cause significantly more damage to the human skin than before. These damages cause various skin diseases and even skin cancer, starting from thinning, wrinkling and premature aging of the skin. The way to protect yourself from this is to stay in the sun less and protect your skin with various creams and lotions that have sun protection properties.
Skin Cancers
Among these increasing diseases, Precancerous diseases and Skin Cancers are prominent. Precancerous (pre-cancerous or likely to turn into cancer) diseases include Senile, Actinic and Seborrheic Keratoses, and sun rays have great effects on these and directly on the formation of cancer on our skin.
What are the Types of Skin Cancers?
Skin Cancers are examined under three main groups, these are Basal Cell Cancer, Epidermoid (squamous) Cell Cancer and Malignant Melanoma. These diseases are more common in people who work under the sun, such as farmers, and especially in people with light skin color.
Basal Cell Cancer; It is relatively innocent and is considered to not spread far. It appears as a persistent lump or swelling on the skin, especially in sunny areas. It can remain silent in its location for years and then grow in a short time. If it is too late, it is necessary to surgically remove all the tissues involved, which may result in loss of eyes, lips, eyebrows and jawbones. Therefore, like all cancers, it requires early diagnosis and treatment. It is common in older ages.
Epidermoid (squamous) Skin Cancer; It can spread to distant lymph nodes and even distant organs. Depending on the cellular characteristics, this spread may occur in the very early stages of the disease, so no time should be wasted in treatment. It appears more frequently in sunny areas and in older ages when sun damage increases. Early treatment is surgical removal of the diseased area. In cases where this is not possible, Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy are used. The type that occurs on the lips is often seen in smokers, and its treatment is partial or complete removal of the lip.
Malignant Melanoma is one of the most aggressive types of cancer found in the body. It may initially appear as a small mole (nevus) or appear as a change on an existing mole. Early diagnosis and treatment is very important as it can spread to nearby and distant organs very early. For this reason, people with many moles (nevus) on their body should be followed by a Dermatologist or Plastic Surgeon at regular intervals, and moles that show suspicious changes should be removed by the Plastic Surgeon. Growth on the mole, color change (lightening or darkening in color), edge irregularity, change in brightness are suspicious. The presence of the same disease in family members and close relatives is also important. The presence of a mole is not necessary for the formation of Malignant Melanoma, and there are also types that do not have a dark color (hyperpigmentation).
Change of Skin and Subcutaneous Layers
There are surgical diseases of the skin and subcutaneous layers other than cancer. These can be listed as skin moles (nevus), giant nevi, sebaceous cysts, dermoid cysts, fibromas and lipomas, hemangiomas, and lymphangiomas. Most of these can be removed with simple local interventions, but Lipomas and Hemangiomas can be evaluated differently depending on their size and location.
Lipomas can arise from fat masses in the subcutaneous layers in various parts of the body. In the beginning, when it is small, it can be removed with local anesthesia, but if it is deep-seated and large, general anesthesia may be required. When it is found in large numbers in the body, it is called Lipomatosis. After remaining small and quiet for a long time, it can grow in size in a short time. Transformation into cancer is rare and can sometimes cause pain and numbness.
How to Reach a Solution?
For this reason, the best thing to do is to have it surgically removed at the beginning, that is, when you are very young. If it grows, surgery may be very problematic depending on the location. The type of superficial spreading port wine stain can be treated with laser application.
