Squamous Cell Carcinoma - Symptoms & Treatment

Squamous Cell Carcinoma is also known as skin cancer - squamous cell or cancroid. Squamous cell carcinoma is a form of cancer of the carcinoma type that may occur in many different organs, including the skin, mouth, esophagus, lungs, and cervix. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the skin is an invasive tumor that arises from keratinizing epidermal cells and has a high metastatic potential to distant parts of the body. SCCs may occur on all areas of the body including the mucous membranes, but are most common in areas exposed to the sun.

Symptoms of Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Skin lesion may become: red in color located on the ears, hands, face, arms, neck surface may be crusted or scaly flat growth or nodule small or firm occur on the tongue, lip, genitals, mouth and other areas, lesion, growth, or bump

• Small
• Firm
• Reddened
• Nodule or flat growth
• Growth may be cone-shaped
• Surface may be scaly or crusted
• Usually located on the face, ears, neck, hands, arms
• May occur on the lip, mouth, tongue, genitals or other areas
• Transformation from a premalignant lesion to see may begin with induration and inflammation of the preexisting lesion.

Cauese of Squamous Cell Carcinoma

It is mainly affected the face, due to more exposed under ultraviolet radiation and sunlight. More exposure to sun is the main cause of squamous cell carcinoma, other causes are include:

• Sun exposure: in situ squamous cell carcinoma is most often found on sun exposed sites of fair skinned individuals. This is because ultraviolet radiation damages the skin cell nucleic acids (DNA) resulting in a mutant clone of the gene p53. This sets of uncontrolled growth of the skin cells. Ultraviolet radiation also suppresses the immune response preventing recovery from this damage.
• Immunosuppression from drugs such as ciclosporin or azathioprine . The longer the course, the more likely that skin cancer will arise, especially in sun-damaged skin.
• Human papillomavirus infection: this rarely causes in situ SCC on the skin although it does so more frequently on the genitals causing vulval and penile intraepithelial neoplasia.
• Arsenic ingestion: this characteristically results in multiple areas of in situ SCC on the trunk and limbs some years after exposure. Arsenic also causes white marks (raindrop hypopigmentation) and scaly lesions on the palms and soles (arsenical keratoses).
• Ionising radiation: in situ SCC was common on the hands of radiologists early in the 20th century.

Treatment of Squamous Cell Carcinoma

The prognosis is better with a well-differentiated lesion than with a poorly differentiated one in an unusual location. Depending on the lesion, treatment may consist of:

• wide surgical excision
• Electrodesiccation and curettage (offers good cosmetic results for small lesions)
• Cryosurgery (not for large invasive tumors or those tumors on certain parts of the body, such as the nose, eyes, ears, head, or legs)
• Mohs surgery (has the highest cure rate for tumors greater than 2 em, recurring tumors, or certain cancers found along the nerves under the skin, face, or genital areas)
• Radiation therapy (generally for older or debilitated patients and for those areas where surgery is difficult, such as the eyes, ears, nose, and throat)
• Lymph node removal (for very large and deeply invasive tumors)
• Chemosurgery (reserved for resistant or recurrent lesions)
• Systemic chemotherapy (when the cancer has spread to lymph nodes or distant organs).

Prevention tips

• Patient can consult their doctor in case of any changes in skin
• Lesion including size, color or texture.
• If there is inflammation, itching, pain or bleeding in an existing skin lesion.