Treatment of Eyelid Skin Cancer
Panama City, Florida
Skin cancer can develop on any surface that is exposed to sunlight—even your eyelids.
Eyelid cancers can surface in many forms. Skin cancer lesions often look like sores that won’t heal. They can appear:
- Elevated
- Depressed
- Red
- Scaly or pearly
- Lightly or darkly discolored
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Some tumors grow quickly while others may take several years to reach a size that may cause one to be alarmed.
Lesions often occur on the lower lids and medial canthus, near the nose, but they can occur just about anywhere including the eyelids, corners of the eyes, under eyebrows, and in adjacent areas of the face. In very severe cases, cancer can even invade your eye socket causing blindness.
Basal Cell Carcinoma
The most common eyelid cancer is basal cell carcinoma. More than 90% of all cancers around your eyelid area are this type of cancer. Most cases occur on the lower lid with lesions that slowly develop as small, firm, painless nodules. While metastasis is rare, if left untreated, the disease can spread to and destroy surrounding tissue. It can cause considerable destruction of your eyelid structure, function, and appearance by spreading.
Other eyelid cancers, such as malignant melanoma, are more aggressive but extremely rare.
Risk Factors
The main risk factor for eyelid cancer is excessive exposure to sunlight. Older people are more often affected because their skin has been exposed to the sun’s harmful UV rays for years and years.
Women over the age of 60, fair-skinned folks, and younger people how have undergone facial radiation therapy are at higher risk. Hereditary factors also play a role in the development of eyelid skin cancer.
Removal
Any kind of cancer must be completely destroyed or removed in order to prevent continued growth. Generally speaking, this is done by a surgical excision—unless the tumor is too large or you are not a good candidate for surgery. In these cases, some tumors are treated with radiation or cryotherapy.
If you or a loved one has sores on or around your eyelids that won’t heal, please contact the Eye Center of North Florida today. Nine doctors. One vision—Yours.
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