Mohs Surgery

What is Mohs surgery?

Mohs surgery is a specialized approach to skin cancer surgery. Your surgeon removes just one layer of tissue at a time. They then analyze that tissue under a microscope to check the cancerous cells, noting where exactly they’re located. 

The process continues with the removal of individual skin layers where you have cancerous cells and then checking the tissue under a microscope again. Your surgeon continues this process until all cancerous cells are gone. Mohs is a very precise process, so it can take several hours or a whole day. 

What are the advantages of Mohs surgery?

Mohs surgery involves the removal of only cancerous tissue. In contrast, with standard skin cancer surgery, your surgeon removes both the cancerous growth (lesion) and some of the healthy skin around it since that skin may also contain cancer cells. 

With Mohs surgery, your surgeon has specialized pathology training, so they know for certain whether there are cancer cells in the tissue around your lesion. This means that they need not remove any healthy tissue. This incredible precision means 100% removal of lesions, less tissue loss, and smaller scars. 

Mohs has the highest cure rate of any type of skin cancer surgery: 99% effectiveness for skin cancers that weren’t previously treated, and 94% effectiveness for previously-treated skin cancers.

What types of skin cancer can Mohs surgery treat?

The Mohs surgery approach is particularly useful for basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas that grow in areas like the eyelids, nose, lips, scalp, or other delicate areas. These delicate areas have little skin to spare, making the Mohs approach ideal since it preserves tissue and minimizes scarring.

Mohs surgery is also quite effective for large, aggressive, or recurrent basal cell carcinomas or squamous cell carcinomas since it makes sure to fully eliminate every cancer cell. Mohs is also used to treat some rare skin cancers like DFSP, extramammary Paget’s disease, and Merkel cell carcinoma.

Although less commonly used, Mohs surgery may be the right approach for some melanomas, particularly those limited to the top skin layer (before the cancer grows or moves downwards.

Need skin cancer surgery but worried about scarring or cancer recurrence? Mohs surgery could be the right approach for you. The team at Allan Mineroff, MD, PC works very closely with local Board certified Mohs surgeons to assure that these cancers are treated with the highest rate of success.

To learn more, call Allan Mineroff, MD, PC, or click on the online booking feature now.