Disease Information

Treatment options

The vast majority of sBCC cases are not serious and can be easily treated if detected early. There are a number of ways to treat sBCC and the choice of treatment is determined by many factors, including the location and size of the cancerous lesion, what the patient would like to do, and the experience of the physician. Most skin-cancer removal can be done using a local anesthetic in the physician's office.

Once sBCC is identified, a number of treatment options are available. These include physically removing the lesion by freezing it with liquid nitrogen, burning it with a laser, scraping it off, or treating it with radiation. There are also drugs that can be applied to the skin that will kill the cancer cells. These include 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and Aldara Cream.

Talk to your doctor about the treatment options for sBCC. All procedures have advantages and disadvantages including side effects, risk of scarring, and the number of treatment sessions required. Once you have been treated for sBCC, you should have regular skin examinations by a doctor or healthcare provider to see if there are any new sBCC lesions.
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Aldara Cream is a skin-use only (topical) prescription medicine used to treat superficial basal cell carcinoma in adults with normal immune systems. It is used when surgical methods of removing the carcinoma are less appropriate. This skin cancer needs to be diagnosed by your healthcare provider.

Safety Information:

When using Aldara Cream, the most common side effects involve skin reactions in the application area. These include redness, swelling, a sore, blisters, or ulcers, skin that becomes hard or thickened, skin peeling, scabbing and crusting, itching, burning, and changes in skin color that do not always go away.

When using Aldara Cream for actinic keratosis and superficial basal cell carcinoma, exposure to sunlight (including sunlamps) should be avoided or minimized during use of Aldara Cream because of concern of heightened sunburn susceptibility. Patients should be warned to use protective clothing (hat) when using Aldara Cream.