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Cancerous diseases are always life-threatening, even though medical science is improving. For example, squamous cell cancer or squamous cell carcinoma is a dangerous type of cancer. It originates in the squamous cells, which are mostly found in the outermost layer of your skin. While this condition might not be ultimately life-threatening, this cancer propagates rapidly.
Are you wondering about the symptoms and treatment procedures for squamous cell cancer? Then, keep reading this article to find out all about it!
As its name suggests, squamous cell cancer develops from the squamous cells. These are thin, flat cells in the outermost layer of your skin. These cells are also present in other organs, including the lungs, digestive tract, mucous membranes, and urinary tract. In addition, these are often found in the areas damaged by the sun's UV rays, including the head, chest, neck, ears, upper back, lips, arms, legs, and hands.
The squamous cell cancer on the skin, starts spreading from the tissues, bones, and nearby lymph nodes. These areas are usually difficult to treat. However, this cancer is curable if diagnosed in the early stages. When your skin is exposed to UV rays from sun or tanning beds can result in this cancer.
While it is difficult to predict who may develop squamous cell cancer, medical history records state that people over 50 years of age are most likely to get this cancer. Furthermore, men are more prone to getting this cancer than women in general. Apart from that, highly fair-skinned people, particularly those with sun-sensitive conditions such as xeroderma pigmentosum, are also at a higher risk of getting this cancer.
There can be different types of squamous cell skin cancer. Medical researchers have differentiated these types based on the unique characteristics of the cancerous cells. A pathologist needs to examine a tissue sample underneath a microscope for determining the type of cancer a patient has. The primary types of this cancer are listed below.
Now that you have an idea about the various types of this squamous cell cancer, you must be curious to learn about its symptoms. While usually, its signs are visible on sun-exposed skin, it can also be seen in other body parts. The following list discusses the symptoms of this cancer.
If you are curious to know the causes of squamous cell skin cancer, an essential notion remains with its origin in the mutations occurring in the squamous cell DNA. These changes result in abnormal cells multiplying and increasing out of control. While most cancer cases occur due to exposure to UV radiation from sunlight or indoor tanning beds, there can also be some other reasons causing this cancer.
Now that you know the types and causes of this cancer, you must learn the various stages of squamous cell cancer. The researchers have divided these stages based on the size of the tumour and its spread to other organs.
Following is a table enlisting the several stages of this condition.
|
Stages |
Impact |
|
Stage 0 |
Cancer has just entered the epidermis (the top layer of the skin). |
|
Stage 1 |
Cancerous cells have propagated deep into the skin but have not spread to areas nearby lymph nodes or other healthy tissues. |
|
Stage 2 |
In this stage, cancer has grown deep into the skin and displays one or more high-risk symptoms but has not spread to nearby lymph nodes. |
|
Stage 3 |
Cancer has grown into lymph nodes but has not spread to any organs apart from the skin. |
|
Stage 4 |
Cancer has spread to one or more distant organs, such as the liver, lungs, brain, or other skin parts. |
The treatment of squamous cell cancer varies from one patient to another, depending on age, overall health condition, location, extent and severity of cancer. However, if diagnosed early, the following treatment procedures are primarily undertaken in healthcare centres.
There are several FDA-approved systematic drugs for the treatment of squamous cell cancer. Commonly, these include cemiplimab-rwlc (Libtayo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda). These drugs are usually aggressive and affect your entire body to fight against the cancer cells.
In such surgeries, doctors use scalpels to remove abnormal skin from your body and its surrounding tissues. They then examine the sample tissue under a microscope. If they find cancer cells in the sample, they repeat the same process until no more cancer cells are present in the sample.
This type of surgery, also called electrodesiccation and curettage, requires the doctors to scrape cancer and burn the skin. This way, they can kill the cancer cells. They can do it more than once to remove all the cancer cells from the body altogether.
For this type of surgery, doctors attempt to remove the cancer cells. During this process, they also remove a thin layer of healthy skin from the surrounding area to make sure that the cancer cells are completely removed. They then stitch the skin to close the wound. Finally, they send this sample to the laboratory to ensure that the cancer cells are no longer present in the body.
In this type of surgery, doctors use liquid nitrogen to freeze and destroy the cancerous tissues. Then, they repeat the process multiple times as long as all the cancerous cells are not completely removed.
The doctors typically aim at applying a photosensitising substance to the cancerous areas. Then, after about 1-3 hours, the medicated regions of the body are exposed to intense light for a long time. This process helps activate the medication to kill the abnormal cells within the body.
This therapy uses high energy X-rays to kill cancer cells with the help of external machinery. This machine aims at sending rays to the affected area of the body. Radiation therapy can continue for several weeks until all the cancerous cells are completely dead.
Now that you know all about treating squamous cell skin cancer, you might be wondering if there are ways to avoid this cancer. According to medical researchers, individuals can prevent most squamous cell cancer with the following measures.
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Disclaimer #2: This information is added only for informative purposes and collected from different sources across the Internet. Digit Insurance is not promoting or recommending anything here. Please verify the information before making any decisions.
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