Skin cancer

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and rates of the disease are increasing rapidly. The management of skin cancer is an increasing part of the work of Barts and The London’s Skin Centre, one of the largest dermatology departments in the UK and the second largest in London. We also work closely with our colleagues in Barts and the London Cancer Centre.

At Barts and The London Skin Centre, we treat patients with all forms of skin cancer, including melanoma and the lower risk non-melanoma skin cancers called squamous cell cancer and basal cell cancer.

We treat patients with complex conditions who are referred to us by surrounding district general hospitals in north east London and as far as Essex. We run a weekly multidisciplinary clinic for complex skin cancers at The Royal London Hospital with oncologists, radiotherapists, plastic surgeons, radiologists and a skin cancer clinical nurse specialist.

Melanoma

Barts and The London Skin Centre is one of only a handful of centres in London offering a sentinel lymph node biopsy service for melanoma and other high-risk skin cancers. This test finds out if the skin cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. This is now regarded as a ‘gold standard’ treatment for melanoma.

Squamous cell cancers

Some forms of skin cancer are a hundred times more common after an organ transplant, due to a weakened immune system, and therefore patients who have had an organ transplant are at increased risk of squamous cell cancer (SCC) – non melanoma. For patients who develop squamous cell cancers after a transplant, we run a dedicated skin clinic. In this clinic, we see all newly transplanted patients and give them advice on skin cancer prevention and detection, and keep them under life-long surveillance. This was the first such clinic in the UK and is now recognised nationally and internationally as the gold standard of care for high-risk patients.

Our service also includes the Family Cancer Clinic for surveillance of individuals and families with atypical mole syndrome and other genetic conditions, who are at increased risk of developing skin cancer.

Treatments

Surgery: surgery is a common treatment for skin cancer. Most basal cell and squamous cell skin cancers can be treated with surgery alone.
Chemotherapy: treatment with drugs to destroy cancer cells.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT): PDT uses laser or other light sources combined with a light-sensitive drug (sometimes a photosensitising agent) to destroy cancer cells in squamous cell cancers, and in some cases is an alternative to surgery for such conditions. This is the only PDT service in the North East Thames area at present.

Sentinel node biopsy: please see above.

Immunotherapy/biological therapies: this involves treatments using the immune system to attack the cancer.
Electrochemotherapy: this uses a combination of chemotherapy and electrical pulses to treat cancer.

Each year we treat at least 150 new patients with melanoma, and more than 600 patients with other forms of skin cancer.

Clinics

We hold the following clinics at The Royal London Hospital:

Multidisciplinary clinic weekly on Tuesday mornings.
Transplant associated skin tumour clinic weekly on Wednesday mornings.
Family skin cancer clinic on the first Thursday of each month.