TREATMENT FOR SKIN CANCER
EFUDEX
After removing a superficial basal cell carcinoma from my forehead, my doctor prescribes Efudex, one of a few creams used to draw out pre-cancerous blemishes caused by years of sun exposure. He is sure these lie beneath the surface of most of my face, neck and arms, putting me at risk of developing skin cancer.
My first thought is that I don’t want those ugly spots to surface. I want my skin nice and smooth as it has been most of my life. Also, I don’t want to get skin cancer and have to treat it later under the scalpel. So the same vanity and health consciousness that kept me hiking, swimming, and bike riding with my skin a deep gold all summer long, is now all out for the good cause of destroying abnormal skin cells.
I begin the three week application of Efudex on my forehead and a small part of my chest, morning and night. The package label and the doctor say: ‘After eight days, you may experience itching, burning, soreness, tenderness, rash, scaling, scarring, photosensitivity, and swelling.’ Ten days into the treatment and I am experiencing all of the above afflictions as well as alarm, exasperation, revulsion, fear and nagging questions: Do I necessarily have more of these pre-cancerous blemishes under my skin? How imperative is this drastic treatment I’m undergoing? Has the sun really caused the one blemish that proved to be a basal cell carcinoma? Do I completely avoid the sun? These days I’m indoors a great deal and so I have time to research and ponder.
TO TAN OR NOT TO TAN
For centuries ‘the tan’ separated the working class from aristocracy. The aristocracy and people of leisure were pale while the working class, working out doors, had dark skin. Southern belles and the fashionable women of Europe guarded them selves with wide hats and frilly parasols, lest their lily white skin became tarnished by the sun. One day this attitude changed and the tan became the symbol of health, beauty and wealth. It could be blamed on the French and the trend setting, fashion icon Coco Chanel, who took a sailing trip along the French Riviera and came home with a nice looking tan that created a tanning revolution. Sunbathing begun in France and was soon adapted by the rest of the fashion conscious world including my girlfriends and I.
Two weeks into EFUDEX and I’m undergoing a creepy metamorphosis that has me taking down mirrors around the house. My forehead looks like I tried to get a year’s supply of sunning in one day. I have a flashback: A group of twenty of us kids camping on a remote Mexican beach for two days. We set up a volley ball net and play beach volleyball for hours under a blazing sun; we swim and surf all day long with no sun protection. We were burning, but having so much fun, we didn’t heed it at the time. Experts claim that most people receive 80% of their lifetime exposure to the sun by 18 years of age. Today, at 45, I’m treating that 20 year old sunburn. Professor Mike Richards, director of a national cancer institute says: “Skin cancer is a serious and increasing public health concern and studies suggest that sunburn can double our risk of developing the disease. “
My own conclusion is that it’s probably safe to tan lightly and gradually. By taking a few simple steps like wearing a hat and T shirt and staying out of the sun around midday, we can significantly reduce the risk of skin cancer.
THE USE OF EFUDEX
I E mail Ellen a long time friend who lives in Cancun year round. She is fair skinned like me, and has had a number of basal cell spots removed. She has been using a similar product which in Mexico is called Efudix. I mention to her that I am treating the entire area of my forehead and chest and that I am blistering and scaling. She writes back and tells me how her doctor there suggests that she only use the cream on very small areas at a time.
“My sister Hazel just had a pre-cancerous sore removed from her leg with Efudix. The sore totally disappeared and she didn’t even feel it. By the way she hardly sees the sun at all working in an office. But she did have those one week vacations where she’d come home with a heck of a sun burn. I see this all the time here, tourists frying on the beach. So I do agree that it is very dangerous to burn your skin in the sun.”
An article by a Dr. Bernarr Zovluck from Santa Monica who is a skin specialist, actually advocates sun bathing. Dr Zovluck writes:
"The sun provides the basis for all life on earth. The sun is the source of energy for all plants, and indirectly, for all animals. ....Sunbathing does not cause cancer of the skin nor wrinkles nor drying of the skin. Healthy people do not get skin cancer - unhealthy people do. Sunbathing helps heal those with cancer by building up the body’s vital energies and increasing the oxygen in the tissues. Sunbathing helps heal cancer of the skin, wrinkles and drying of the skin. Unfortunately, those who develop skin cancer and/or wrinkles and also coincidentally sunbathe have had many unhealthful habits that cause their skin cancer.
yself get the odd suspicious looking skin thing. When that happens I apply the efudex over a period of several days/weeks, just on the spot itself, not the surrounding areas as my doctor had advised me. She even said not to put it on continually but every third day unless it is a particularily aggressively growing spot, then it's every day for a week. I sometimes forget to apply it and when I remember, I continue it's use until the spot disappears, or I can see it is not reacting. Mostly they disappear as I have come to recognize whether something is pre-cancerous or not. This is how I was told to use the cream. However the web sites talk about the kind of over-all treatment you are doing, warning that it is a drastic treatment that requires strict control by a doctor. Again, is your doctor seeing you regularily throughout this treatment? If not, she should. My sister Hazel just had a pre-cancerous sore removed from her foot, and she hardly sees the sun at all, works in an office. But she did have her sun-tanning days in her youth. Us European skinned people just weren't meant to absorb so much sun.
THE TREATMENT
It’s been a month since my last application of efudex. The skin on my face and chest is pink and new. There is neither itching nor burning any more. The blemishes that had surfaced are all gone. The treatment with Efudex is quite miraculous as it provides the great advantage of catching and stopping a cancerous growth just as it’s developing. I forgot how much I’ve suffered. The doctor says it’s worked well and recommends that next winter I address another patch of skin with Efudex and cover a smaller area. I guess I can live with that.
