Melanoma cancer

Find your nearest GenesisCare center to find out what diagnostic tests and scans are available in your local area. Whatever your outcome, our expert team will support you throughout your treatment journey.

At GenesisCare, we specialize in the latest technologies and continually evaluate the latest skin cancer treatments so we can offer the most up-to-date options to every patient without delay. We offer treatments that can effectively improve your skin cancer prognosis, manage the disease and help minimize any discomfort and pain. These include surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy and radiation therapy. You and your doctor will work together to decide on the most appropriate melanoma treatment plan for you, tailored to your needs.

Wide excision

Excisional surgery involves cutting out the cancerous tissue and a surrounding margin of healthy skin. This procedure is performed under local anesthetic and the sample is looked at under a microscope after to ensure no cancer cells were left behind at the edges of the skin that was removed. Larger margins may be cut for thicker tumors, and margins may be smaller if the melanoma is on the face to minimize visible scarring.

Mohs surgery

Mohs surgery, or Mohs micrographic surgery, is a technique that causes minimal damage to the surrounding healthy tissue and only removes the skin containing the melanoma. The visible tumor is removed and your surgeon will then remove a layer of the skin and analyze it under a microscope to see if it contains cancer cells. This process is continued layer-by-layer until no more cancer cells are found.

Lymph node dissection

For more advanced melanomas, where there is a risk of the cancer spreading to the lymph nodes, your surgeon may recommend removing all lymph nodes that are in close proximity to the cancer. A lymph node dissection is often done after the nearby lymph nodes have been examined and are abnormal (such as large in size or harder), or a biopsy has been performed and cancerous cells have been found in one or more nodes.

External beam radiation therapy (EBRT)

At GenesisCare our melanoma treatments consist of external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) techniques, where radiation is delivered from outside the body. These include:

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)

IMRT is an advanced external beam radiation therapy technique where the beams of radiation are precisely shaped to exactly match your tumor and damage to adjacent healthy tissues is limited.

Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT)

VMAT is an advanced form of IMRT that directs beams of radiation in an arc across the treatment area. VMAT very accurately target areas of cancer and can be used to give a homogenous dose to large treatment areas while sparing deep tissue from toxicity.

Chemotherapy for melanoma

Chemotherapy refers to drugs that destroy cancer cells. Our expert teams may recommend chemotherapy after other treatments or on its own. Chemotherapy is not usually used as the first treatment for melanoma, but it can shrink the size of the tumors in some cases.

The type of chemotherapy you’ll receive will also depend on how advanced your skin cancer is. If your melanoma has spread to other parts of your body, chemotherapy can help control its growth, relieve symptoms and improve your skin cancer prognosis.

Targeted therapy for melanoma

As researchers know more about melanoma, they have developed new treatments that can specifically target it. We use targeted therapy to seek and attack cellular activity that the cancer depends on to survive and grow. They are used depending on the specific genetic make up of your cancer. Types of targeted therapy for skin cancer include:

• Cancer growth inhibitors – some melanomas can have an altered proteins called BRAF and MEK which helps them grow. These drugs target the faulty BRAF and MEK proteins to stop the cancer from growing

Immunotherapy for melanoma

Immunotherapy helps your body’s own immune system to recognize and fight the cancer.
Checkpoint inhibitors are an effective immunotherapy against these melanoma and they work by blocking the signals that stop the immune system from attacking the cancerous cells.