When Basal Cell Carcinoma becomes terminal

Thank you for your thoughts.  I hope that your mother receives good news regarding her illness.  I have recently spent time with my sister, and she appears to be doing ok.  Fortunately, ignorance is bliss, and she has no concept of how serious her cancer is.  Again, I thank you for your thoughts. Diana M.

Hi, my name is Bridget and I am a mohs tech for a dermatologist in Florida.  The BCC on your mom's foot is totally treatable!!  Ask her dermatologist about radiation in conjunction with Mohs Micrographic surgery.  (check out some info on mohssurgery.org)  I don't care how big that basal cell is on her foot - it's curable.  It may result in a large loss of tissue but plastic surgeons can reconstruct ANYTHING - especially a foot.

 

  As for the original message regarding the BCC on the face.  That one is more difficult.  Though hope isn't lost.  Radiation treatment can shrink tumors and prolong your sister's life.  Radiation is non invasive and the only real side effects are what amounts to a bad sunburn: totally manageable.  The only difficulty might be getting your sister to sit still if she is at all uncooperative.  Best wishes and don't give up just yet.  It's worth a shot.

This is why this blog is so helpful. Thank you Bridget for the reply.

Bridget,

 

I am on a round of carac 5th day tonight at once a day on my face after a mohs procedure for squamous cell on my nose,  do you think this is really helping me,  my face is so raw and more spots are coming up,,  Any suggestions for a 44 year old woman with summer on the way and what I can do to enjoy it,  or this a new way of life never seeing the sun again,  I think boyfriend of 2 years is in shock looking at my face and thinking all of these are cancers,,, scared to death... please reply

Don't worry!  That's supposed to happen.  The cool thing about Carac is that it only reacts with cancerous/precancerous cells.  So all of those raw and red areas would have eventually caused you a problem - not to say that ALL of them would have turned into skin cancer, but they all had the potential to.  Stick with it... it's usually 14 days of treatment and it gets worse before it gets better, but you can handle it.  Just think, every single one of those red spots could be a mohs surgery.  Now that's inspiration to stick with it, huh?  As for the summer thing, you know that you've had enough sun exposure to cause at least one skin cancer, so you definitely need to avoid the sun as much as possible.  Get yourself a nice floppy hat and a beach umbrella.  A nice sunblock that I use is Neutrogena's Drytouch SPF 70 with helioplex.  It feels thick when you're putting it on, but it soaks in very quickly and within a few minutes you can't feel it.  Another nice one is Neutrogena Cool Mist spray sunblock (SPF 30 I think.)  The only sunblock worth buying is the one you'll use, so get one that smells and feels nice or you won't use it. 

Did your sister have a PET/CT scan done that shows metastasis?  Bloodwork with cancer markers?  Chest xray?  I'm just curious because it is so rare that basal cell carcinoma will actually cause death.  I have seen it only once and the tumor on this man's head engulfed one entire side of his head.  It began growing when he was a teenager and he finally died from it when he was in his 60s.  He came into the office about 3 months before he died at his wife's insistance.  Of course, it was far too late for any type of treatment at that point.  It was deeply invading his brain and spinal cord by the time he saught treatment.  How old is your sister?

Thank you for your comments Bridget!

I too have basal cell carcinoma.  My first finding was at 36.  I had the Mohs surgery and it was removed.  I was told that is was likely to return and it did.  I catch it quickly and immediately have it removed. I've had 4 removed so far.  I have done a tremendous amount of research and agree that it is extremely rare that it would be terminal.  I would urge you to get another opinion or 2. 

I am glad that you were successful in catching the reoccurence quickly.  Anyone who reads this needs to understand that there is a lot more wrong with my sister besides cancer.  When a normal person has this disease, he or she can discuss it with a doctor, know what to look for and know what to aoid etc. My sister is severely developmentally disabled, with multiple diagnoses. She is severely retarded, has autistic behavior, bi-polar disorder and OCD. Her OCD makes it very hard to get near her, as she absolutely hates to be touched.  She had a sore on her face for a long time, and my parents tried having her seen by doctors. Unfortunately, the medical community is completely ill-prepared to examine and treat someone with all of her problems. One of the doctors refused to touch her, as if retardtion was contagious. He would only diagnose it as a "chronic sore". It was sad to me.  Anyway, we were lucky to find a very reputible doctor who performed several surgeries. It always came back.  I have already said that three prominent Chicago doctors all said they had NEVER seen basal cell that aggressive.