Hi Glnnok

I have had superficial radio therapy for BCC. I was sent to a neighbouring hospital for this as they had the specialist low energy machine for this. I had 5 doses over one week. It was successful but more lesions appeared again in the same sun damaged area on my face. And I had surgery to remove these.

The stereotactic radio therapy you mention is for deep tumours in liver etc I think rather, than shallow skin cancers.

Hope this is helpful, I have a 30 year history of BCC and now metastatic SCC. I would recommend to your dad to protect his exposed skin with SPC 50 suncream, wear a hat and avoid strong sunlight for the future if he wishes to avoid more of these lesions.

Ed

Thanks Ed.

My dad already had Mohs surgery on NHS but it he was in the small percentage of unsuccesuful outcomes as it has come back.

His next step at onclogy was to undergo radiotherapy which would damage his eye irreperabaly or a new experimental drug therapy which had low success rate and very bad side effects.

He has found a private clinic offering a treatment 'not available in UK' only in the United States. It seems like it's a legitimate treatment but it's available on NHS? So he has been mislead at worst upsold at best? Was your superficial treatment done on NHS? 

My treatment 11 years ago was not stereotactic radio therapy. It was I think  a low voltage? radiotherapy machine. It was done at an NHS university trust hospital.

What was the experimental drug offered? I am due to start a course of cemiplimab to treat SCC which cannot be treated with radiotherapy or surgery any more. Im told this has a good success rate and tolerable side effects.

Given that your dad has this type of skin cancer it is likely that you too will be be susceptible to it and protecting your skin against sun damage is something you should give consideration.

If your dad has the funds to get treatment and there are no other options he should go for it.

Ed

Yes it is superficial radiotherapy which seems to be legitimate. Seeing as my dad's mohs did not work it should be a good option. It does seem to be available on the NHS however so wondering why they wouldn't have suggested it - unless it was too far gone to treat with that and he would lose his eye.

I will find out the name of the drug and get back to you. Thanks!

Hello and thank you for posting.

I can see you have had some helpful advice from a fellow poster.

I am sorry to hear your concerns about your dad's treatment. We have information on superficial radiotherapy for the skin on our website if useful. It may be helpful for you to have a conversation with your dad's specialist if your dad is happy to have his information shared. Then you can ask questions to understand his situation better.

Take care and if you want to talk things through with one of the nurses on our helpline, the number to call is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and the lines are open from 9 am till 5 pm, Monday to Friday.

Sarah.

Hi there Ed. 

Update my dad saw the specialist and unfortunately the cancer has spread too close to his eye to treat safely so he has decided to proceed with the drug.The name of the drug is Vismodegib.

Perhaps I'll ask him to contact you on here in future if that's ok with you as you seem to have valuable experience.

Thanks!

Hi Glennok

Thank you for getting back to me about the name of the drug Vismodegib your father has been prescribed for BCC.

Skin cancer on the face head can be extremely disfiguring, your dads situation with BCC near his eye highlights this.

Losing your eye nose ear or horrific facial scars can leave one debilitated and socially isolated.

I have started a course of 3 weekly  Cemiplimab immunotherapy for advanced skin SCC. So far so good.

Im happy to answer any questions your dad has about skin cancer.

And good to know he has someone supporting him.

Ed