Surgery is the most common treatment for all stages of melanoma. The goal of surgery is to remove the melanoma, while leaving as much healthy skin as possible. All surgery is performed by BWH’s dermatologic surgeons and surgical oncologists, who use the most advanced technology available. Our team of dermatologists, plastic surgeons, cutaneous oncologists, micrographic surgeons and dermatologic oncologists have decades of experience caring for patients with skin cancer.
There are several options for surgical treatment. The specific surgery your care team recommends will depend on several factors, including the stage, location and size of your melanoma.
Options include:
- Wide Local Excision: This procedure involves using a scalpel or small blade to remove the melanoma and an area of tissue around it.
- Sentinel lymph node biopsy: This procedure removes the sentinel lymph node(s), which are the first lymph nodes the cancer is likely to reach.
- Lymphadenectomy: This procedure removes all the lymph nodes from an area.
- Mohs surgery with MART-1 staining: This is a type of surgery in which early-stage melanoma is removed and examined under a microscope with special stains to identify the tumor to make sure the entire lesion has been removed. If all the cancer is not removed with the first incision, the surgeon takes more tissue until all the cancer has been removed. Learn more about Mohs surgery.
If you have any questions about your surgery, talk with your health care team. They can help you know what to expect before, during and after your surgery.
Skin-Directed Therapies
We use several types of skin-directed therapies for some superficial melanoma or those that cannot be removed. These may include imiquimod, a topical cream that activates the immune system to recognize and treat melanoma. Our team also uses injected therapies, included T-VEC, for advanced melanoma. During this procedure, the doctor injects each tumor with a modified virus that selectively infects and kills the cancer cells.
Non-Surgical Treatment Options
Depending on the stage of melanoma and whether it has spread, non-surgical treatments such as immunotherapy, targeted therapy, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy may be recommended. Specialists at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center use the most advanced treatments available, guided by the latest research and clinical guidelines.
Many patients may also be eligible for innovative clinical trials offering access to promising new therapies. A melanoma specialist will help determine the most effective treatment plan based on each patient’s specific needs.
Learn more about non-surgical treatment options for melanoma.
