For skin cancers detected early, surgery is often the best
option.
Duke’s team of highly experienced surgeons performs
everything from simple excisions and re-excisions to innovative
techniques such as intraoperative lymphatic mapping and
sentinel lymph node biopsies.
Sentinel lymph node biopsies allow surgeons to remove a
single lymph node from a regional nodal basin to determine
whether melanoma has spread from its primary site on the
skin.
Our surgeons are also experienced in performing Mohs
micrographic surgery to remove the growth layer by layer until
only healthy tissue remains, a technique that has the highest
cure rate of all skin cancer treatment methods.
Targeted Techniques
To enhance the safety and efficacy of treatment, Duke
surgeons are among the national leaders in developing novel
techniques that allow regional delivery of new therapeutic
agents to an extremity affected by melanoma.
These regional treatments allow high doses of chemotherapy
to be given without affecting the rest of the patient's
body.
Duke surgeons are also working to develop a new generation
of tumor vaccines. Duke has a long history of pioneering
vaccine development in melanoma.
The new vaccines being developed are designed to augment the
function of the body’s main immune-fighting cell, the dendritic
cell.
Physicians
Physicians offering this service include:
