If you had skin cancer, could you pick off your abnormal mole/growth and be cured?

Most likely not, most skin cancers are deeper than just the surface of the skin and then there is always the chance that the cancer has metastasized to another part of the body.





If you suspect skin cancer, please go see your dermatologist or GP ASAP.

If you had skin cancer, could you pick off your abnormal mole/growth and be cured?
No.
Reply:no, you need to be seen by a dermatologist and or oncologist.
Reply:no unless you can DIG the cancer out. moles are not just on the surface. i'd get a referal to a dermatologist asap especially if you think you have skin cancer.
Reply:I'm a medical student and i think i do know this question and the right answer. it really deplanes on how far the cancer has spread and what it had affected already. if you removed the mole and the cancer just started you would just need to go through medicines and more stuff. hope i helped for any other questions please write to me at sweethunnme@yahoo.com thats me email adress
Reply:no. there are several kinds of skin cancers. the bad ones spread through your blood vessels and even if you remove the growth that you actually see, the cancer is all over and you can't see it.
Reply:no, cancer spreads and a doctor has to do a very meticulous operation involving teeny tiny skin cells that are looked under a microscope.


my sister had skin cancer and they had to remove it from her face and it was just this white spot so...you never know. and the surgery lasted over three hours.
Reply:You have got to be kidding me! My father is dying of lung cancer, no, you cannot pick cancer off of yourself, you have to be kidding me. This is a seriously life-threatening disease. You have to treat it and take care of it. It will kill you if you don't. Picking a cancerous mole will make it grow back...
Reply:Not at all . It can go deep into the tissue ; and all the corners need to be removed . Sometimes it's possible for some of the carcinoma or melanoma to be missed during surgery unless you have the MOHS procedure by a dermatologist skilled in MOHS . A biopsy of the tissue will dictate if you need to return for more surgery . With the MOHS procedure , however , the biopsy is done before your surgery is complete - to be certain they have removed it all . There is no possible way for anyone to "pick off" cancer .
Reply:You theoretically could, IF the cancer was in a very early stage and you made sure to get ALL of it COMPLETELY...although at that point it is usually classified as "pre-cancerous". But simply "picking" it off isn't going to work, it's highly unlikely you would get all the abnormal cells by such a method, because a good portion of it is under the skin too (sort of like the difficulty squeezing a zit by hand to get ALL the crap out on the very first try).











Most likely what would happen is that you would create a wound with only half or less of the cancer cells removed...and that would also create a weak spot on your skin that would actually be more susceptible to spreading further infection, which would ultimately make the growth worse than before.





"Pre-cancerous" moles mean that it has already started to spread under the skin, but are still shallow enough to be frozen off or removed by laser. Anything "cancerous" requires surgery or more drastic measures, because it would be spread too deep beneath the skin to be removed by surface methods.