Hello team,

Thank you for being there for everyone on this forum. 

My Dad had a diagnosis of PV blood cancer about four years ago. It is somewhat under control via chemo tablets and regular monitoring, though he is due to have more blood letting soon, as his recent readings have not been too good. He has had pre-cancerous skin cancer cells all over his head for some years.

Last week, we pushed him to check out a patch on his ear, that looked particularly angry. He was told by the Dr that it's "most likely skin cancer" but that a biopsy would be carried out to determine this. The Dr took a photo and referred the case to MDT and we've now been told that Dad has been booked for a wedge excision procedure next week. This has all been done by letter and it's been confusing and poorly communicated. He has not had a chance to ask questions and is very anxious. We are struggling to get hold of anyone to discuss options.

I wondered whether you could shed any light on whether it's common to jump straight to surgery, just from looking at a photo of suspected skin cancer, i.e. without having a biopsy procedure first? We don't want to risk pushing the surgery back unnecessarily, but it's all been very sudden, so my Dad is keen for the biopsy first. He had open heart surgery two years ago, and is generally rather unwell, so we don't want him to have GA unless it's absolutely necessary. Could you shed any light at all, on the decision to skip the biopsy stage? 

Thank you so much. I appreciate you taking the time to read this message. 

Stephie