Skin Cancer
What is eyelid and peri-ocular skin cancer?
Skin cancers can affect the eyelids or peri-ocular region of the face. Eyelid skin cancers most frequently appear on the lower lid, although can be found anywhere on the eyelid, corner of the eye, eyebrow skin and certain areas of the face. Skin cancer usually appears as painless elevations or nodules, often with a pearly appearance, with either loss or distortion of the eyelashes, or fine hairs of the skin. There may be ulceration of the involved area, with bleeding, crusting, redness and/or distortion of normal skin appearance. A biopsy is required to confirm the diagnosis of skin cancer.
What are the common eyelid and peri-ocular skin cancers?
The most common type of skin cancer is the basal cell carcinoma or rodent ulcer, followed less commonly by squamous cell carcinoma. There are other rarer cancers which may also occur, affecting different parts of the skin micro-structure. Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma both enlarge locally and do not usually spread or metastasise to distant parts of the body. However, with time, if these tumours are not completely removed, either type will invade adjacent structures and a squamous cell carcinoma may spread to lymph nodes in the head and neck.
It is important to know that these two types of skin cancer are relatively slow growing, but do require treatment to eradicate them. Tumours must be completely removed, therefore early detection followed by prompt treatment is extremely important.