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Our patients are our number one concern. We feel the necessity to continue to strive to excel in developing new treatments, explore beyond the frontier of research and maintaining our highest of standards in educating both patients and medical personel in dermatological aspects. Below are our clinic listings. Please select the clinic in which you are searching information.
Mohs Surgery
Mohs surgery is a highly specialized treatment for the total removal of skin cancer. This method differs from all other methods of treating skin cancer by the use of complete microscopic examination of all the tissues removed surgically as well as detailed mapping techniques to allow the surgeon to remove the entire lesion.
The procedure is performed without hospitalization under a local anesthetic. The visible lesion and a very thin layer of skin are removed with a scalpel, carefully mapped, and examined microscopically.
If there is still cancer seen under the microscope, another very thin layer of skin is removed from that exact location. This is repeated as often as necessary to completely remove the cancer. Mohs surgery removes as little normal tissue as possible, minimizing scarring.
In untreated cancers, the percentage of cure for Mohs surgery is 99 percent. In previously treated cancers, where other forms of treatment offer only 80 percent chance of success,
Mohs surgery is 95 percent effective.
Skin Cancer
The Melanoma and Cutaneous Oncology Group at Johns Hopkins shares clinical interests including melanomas, nonmelanoma skin cancers, pigmented lesions, carcinomas, superficial sarcomas, and cutaneous manifestation of systemic diseases.
Melanomas
Melanoma is a cancer of the pigment-producing cells of the skin, the melanocytes. When melanoma is diagnosed and removed at an early stage, the cure rate is high. However, if it is diagnosed late, spread of disease is likely to occur.
While melanoma can appear anywhere on the skin surface, in men it is most common on the back or the head and neck, and in women on the back or the back of the legs. Melanoma can develop in a pre-existing mole, or arise on normal-appearing skin. It is suspected when a mole looks uneven in terms of its border, shape, or color. Diagnosis is confirmed with a simple skin biopsy.
Nonmelanoma skin cancers
Nonmelanoma skin cancer is the most common type of cancer affecting humans. This year, there will be over 1,000,000 cases diagnosed and treated in the United States alone. This exceeds the number of all other cancers combined. There are two main forms of nonmelanoma skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Both types of cancer appear to be related to sun exposure.
BCC out numbers SCC by a ratio of 3 or 4 to 1, and develops most commonly as a waxy spot that may crust and bleed when bumped. It tends to grow very slowly, over months to years, and although potentially quite disfiguring and locally invasive, BCC rarely metastasizes to other parts of the body. SCC often presents as a sore or non-healing, eroded patch. Although not as dangerous as melanoma or many forms of internal cancer, SCC will occasionally spread to the local lymph nodes and on to the rest of the body, and cause death in addition to local impairment. Thus, both types of nonmelanoma cancer need to be treated promptly once diagnosed.
Pigmented Lesions & Melanoma
The Johns Hopkins Melanoma and Cutaneous Oncology Group is a unique multidisciplinary group that offers a comprehensive approach to skin cancer, including melanoma. We are a team of specialists from varied disciplines including dermatology, genetics, medical oncology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, pathology, plastic surgery, radiology, surgical oncology and surgery.
The group meets weekly to discuss treatment plans for patients with clinical colleagues in addition to the latest discoveries about the underlying causes of cancer and the development of research and more specialized and targeted therapies for our patients.
The Pigmented Lesion Clinic is a specialty dermatologic clinic devoted to patients who are at a higher than average risk of melanoma because of a personal or family history of melanoma or a large number of atypical ("dysplastic") moles. Several dermatologists who have a special interest in this area participate in this clinic which also offers photographic imaging of a patient's skin so that changes in moles can be verified by comparison to previously taken photos.
The Melanoma and Cutaneous Oncology office is located in the Department of Dermatology and is open to co-ordinate appointments from 8:30am to 4:30 pm, Monday-Friday.
The Melanoma and Cutaneous Oncology Group
The Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center
601 N. Caroline Street, Suite 6066, Baltimore, MD 21287
Phone: (410) 614-1022
Fax: (410) 955-7100
David Kropfelder Foundation
David Kropfelder passed away in February 2003 after a lengthy and courageous battle against melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. Because of David’s passion for life and his zest to live it to the fullest, his friends and family have developed The David Kropfelder Melanoma Foundation in his memory.
In the summer of 2003, the foundation developed a partnership with world-renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins University School of Dermatology to support melanoma research. Please visit their site and we hope, as Dave did, to never, never quit until there is a cure for this disease.
The site is http://www.dkmf.org/
If you would like to make a contribution to the David Kropfelder Melonoma Research and Education Fund at Johns Hopkins, Please send your check to:
The Department of Dermatology
100 N. Charles Street, Suite 436
Baltimore, MD 21201
or contact the Director of Development
at 410-516-8487
