Mohs Surgery
Overview of Mohs Micrographic Surgery
Mohs micrographic surgery is the most effective and advanced treatment for skin cancer.
Mohs surgery offers the highest potential for cure.
Originally developed in the 1930s, Mohs micrographic surgery has been refined into the most advanced, precise, and effective treatment for a large variety of skin cancer types. Skin cancer often resembles the “tip of the iceberg” with more tumor cells growing downward and outward into the skin like the roots of a tree. These “roots” are not visible with the naked eye, but can be seen under a microscope. With the Mohs technique, physicians can precisely identify and remove an entire tumor while leaving the surrounding healthy tissue intact and unharmed.
Advantages of Mohs surgery include:
– Ensuring complete cancer removal during surgery, virtually eliminating the chance of the cancer growing back
– Minimizing the amount of healthy tissue lost
– Maximizing the functional and cosmetic outcome resulting from surgery
– Repairing the site of the cancer the same day the cancer is removed, in most cases
– Curing skin cancer when other methods have failed
Other skin cancer treatment methods require the provider to blindly estimate the amount of tissue to treat, which can result in the unnecessary removal of healthy skin tissue and tumor re-growth if any cancer is missed.