Skin cancer screening is a visual exam of the skin to check for signs of skin cancer. Screening is looking for cancer before a person has any symptoms and it can help find cancer at an early, treatable stage of disease.
For your full-body skin exam, you will need to dress down and wear an exam gown. You may leave your undergarments on for the exam.
Dr. Warmuth uses a dermatoscope to examine your skin from head to toe, including your scalp, fingers, toes, and fingernail and toenail beds. She will check the skin for moles, birthmarks, or other pigmented areas that look abnormal in size, color, shape, or texture. A dermatoscope helps to give a magnified, detailed view of any skin spots or moles.
If you have a skin growth that Dr. Warmuth wants to watch over time, she will take a photograph of it at your first visit. At subsequent visits, she will compare it to look for any changes.
If you have any suspicious-looking spots on your skin, Dr. Warmuth will do a skin biopsy to remove as much of the tissue as possible with a local incision. The specimen will be sent to the lab for a pathologist to look at under a microscope to check for cancer cells.
Note that a skin biopsy may cause scarring.
If you had a skin biopsy done, we will notify you of the results as soon as we get the report back from the lab. If your results are negative for skin cancer (benign skin cells), you’ll be scheduled for your next, annual skin cancer screening.
If your results are positive for skin cancer (malignant skin cells), you’ll be scheduled for a follow-up visit to discuss your biopsy results (type of skin cancer) and treatment options.
If you are interested in skin cancer screening, call Warmuth Institute of Dermatology at (856) 358-1500 to schedule an appointment.
You should get a full-body skin exam once a year, especially if you have one or more of the following risk factors: