Skin cancer

The so-called black skin cancer, medically called malignant melanoma, often develops spontaneously from birthmarks. Today, it is important to regularly check your skin for such much too often malignant changes. Please arrange regular check-ups (skin cancer screening) with your dermatologist, especially if you have many moles.

If you have been found to have skin cancer, drug therapy may be necessary after removal of this tumor. In the case of certain drugs, a molecular pathological examination must be performed to determine whether the selected drug can work at all. A certain genetic constellation of the tumor tissue could lead to the drug being ineffective; in this case, it is necessary to switch to another active substance.

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Among the skin tumors, malignant melanoma shows the highest metastasis rate (spread of the tumor). 90% of all deaths from skin tumors are due to this type of tumor. Malignant melanoma can arise spontaneously or develop from a birthmark (nevus); the risk for this increases significantly with the number of sunburns suffered in the course of life. The basis of the then developing tumor cells are genetic changes in these cells (mutations).

For the therapy of malignant melanoma, two drugs are approved as standard therapy. However, since these can only be given depending on the presence or absence of a mutation, molecular pathological diagnostics (including BRAF, NRAS) is essential. This is easily performed on tumor tissue and can be requested from us by your treating physician.

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