A local doctor says a skin cancer surgery newly offered locally will prevent hundreds of patients from having to travel to Edmonton or Calgary.
Dr. Isaiah Day is now offering the Mohs surgery suite at Innovation Dermatology, a first for Red Deer.
He said there are certain types of common skin cancers such as basal-cell carcinoma and squamos-cell carcinoma that can affect people in Central Alberta.
“We have a lot of people who work outdoors and in the sun who have been getting these cancers,” said Day. “We’ve had to ship them away to Edmonton or Calgary for the procedure.”
Mohs surgery expedites the process of removing the cancer and checking to see if all the cancer has been removed. If it hasn’t then another surgery will be scheduled.
“They wait for two or three weeks for the results to come back and then we say ‘we didn’t get the cancer all out, we need to bring you back and take some more,’” said Day.
Using a nitrogen bath, the tissue taken from the patient is quickly frozen and examined. This changes the wait for results from weeks to hours.
Before Mohs was offered, Day gave an example of dealing with cancer on a patient’s nose. The cancer would be cut off the tip of the nose, a skin graft would be put on. Then if, after testing, it was discovered not all the cancer had been removed, they’d have to repeat the process.
“Now they can come in the morning, you can take off a portion of the cancer and check it,” said Day. “Two hours later, while they’re sitting in a room reading a book, you can tell the patient if you need to take more and that process can be repeated.”
As a result, Day said the cure rates increase to about 98 per cent.
“This will help a lot of people,” said Day. “If you can catch a skin cancer early, it’s done. That’s what we’re trying to do. We want to capture those tumours early.”
mcrawford@reddeeradvocate.com
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