Future Directions for the Management of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancers

Valencia Thomas, MD, MHCM, Department of Dermatology, Division of Internal Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the future for managing care in patients with non-melanoma skin cancers.

Within the previous years, updates in technology and research have allowed for the development of new therapies to improve the prognosis of patients with non-melanoma skin cancers. For patients with advanced disease, highly aggressive disease, and disease with distant metastases, current viable options include immunotherapy, medications, surgical intervention, radiation, chemotherapy, and more.

Thomas notes that the future is bright for this patient population and might include collaboration between various medical specialties, new and innovative applications of currently existing therapies, improvements in surveillance, and increased education for both patients and providers.

Transcription:

0:08 | The future for the management of non-melanoma skin cancers includes close collaboration between different medical specialties so that the best of each specialty is leveraged in the fight against cancer. What we're seeing moving forward are innovative applications of currently existing therapeutics to address cancers that have historically had poor outcomes or cancers that are very difficult to fight, because our detection is limited. The good news about skin cancer is that with skin cancers, we have a shot at having a sign or a symptom that is there, so making sure that we improve our surveillance, making sure we improve the education of both providers and patients. We can help to intervene at an earlier level.

1:24 | When I look at the future, I look at the wonderful efforts that are made to educate using technology, using social media to help people identify what is abnormal, but then the future allows us the opportunity to really collaborate and speak.