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Surgical Oncology:
Clinical Conditions & Program Offerings
Melanoma
Melanoma is a serious form of skin cancer. Normal pigment-producing cells become cancerous and aggressively invade surrounding healthy tissue. Melanoma often appears as a mole and tends to be larger than a pencil eraser, uneven in color, asymmetrical, and ragged around the border. Melanoma may remain only in the skin or it may spread through the blood or lymph system to other organs and bones.
Surgical removal of the tumor is the most effective treatment for melanoma. For more advanced melanomas that include regional spread or metastases to other organs, radiation therapy and chemotherapy may be used in combination with surgery. It is important to diagnose the tumor’s spread to the lymph glands early and the sentinel lymph node biopsy technique is a minimally invasive way to do so.
The clinical team at Mercy provides expert treatment for all stages of melanoma. Drs. Sardi and Gushchin participate in a multi-national trial on better surgical treatment of advanced melanoma. Additionally, Drs. Sardi and Gushchin have initiated a research trial to decrease the extent of lymph node removal using ultrasound.
A novel technique called isolated limb infusion (ILI) treats late stages of melanoma (and sarcoma) confined to an extremity when amputation is the only treatment option. During the procedure high doses of chemotherapy are delivered directly to the tumor. ILI is available only in few centers worldwide and our surgical oncology team together with interventional radiologists brought this advanced treatment recently to Mercy.
Other clinical conditions managed by Surgical Oncology at Mercy:
Now Accepting New Patients.
Most Insurances Accepted.
Please call for an appointment.
Phone: 410-332-9294
Tollfree: 1-800-MD-Mercy
(1-800-636-3729)
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