You will be given a questionnaire to complete prior to your appointment, this will take around 10 minutes to complete, so please arrive 10 minutes before your scheduled appointment time.
Your skin should be free of any foundation, make up or coloured products over the area of interest for skin check. You will need to remove clothing down to your underwear.
Our Skin cancer doctor will use a Dermatoscope to have a close up/magnified look at any spots of concern. A dermatoscope is a bit like torch with a magnifying glass attached to the end. Using a dermatoscope is painless. Sometimes the doctor may take a photograph of a spot or mole so it can be monitored over time for any changes in appearance.
Then…
Our Skin cancer specialist will tell you straight away if you have any mole or spots which require testing. To test the mole or spot he will either take a small biopsy (sample) of it, or completely excise (cut out) the spot of concern – under local/general anesthetic of course.
In most cases another appointment will be made to remove the abnormal mole or spot. This type of minor surgery can be carried out at Elite Medical Centre.
After it is removed, the mole or spot is sent to a pathology laboratory for testing. Receiving the test results can take from one to several days, depending on the pathology provider.
After skin check
In most cases, when found early, skin cancer can be easily and successfully treated with surgery. Most skin cancers are cured once they are removed. Other non-surgical treatments such as cream, radiotherapy or light therapy may be used but this will depend on the type of skin cancer found.
Depending on your level of risk for developing skin cancer, your doctor may recommend regular follow up skin checks. The frequency for follow up skin checks can vary from every few months, to once every year or two.
