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Squamous Cell Skin Cancer

Webinar: Diagnosed with Skin Cancer? Here’s What To Do Next

View the recording of our webinar ~ February 24, 2022

An Hour with Kathy Barnard

In this webinar, Kathy Barnard, founder of SYSF and melanoma survivor, shares her experience navigating and advocating through the Canadian health care system, which is complicated and can be confusing to many. She helps patients and caregivers understand how to get from diagnosis to surgical and/or systemic treatment of melanoma or non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) such as metastatic basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) or merkel cell carcinoma (MCC).

Click HERE to view the recording!

And click HERE to download/print a list of Questions you can ask your Doctor

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SYSF Collaborates with National Comprehensive Cancer Network

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) is a not-for-profit alliance of 28 leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to improving and facilitating quality, effective, efficient, and accessible cancer care so patients can live better lives. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN Member Institutions, NCCN develops clinical practice guidelines appropriate for use by patients, clinicians, and other health care decision-makers around the world.

Though these guidelines are developed with best practices in use in the United States, the resources do apply to patients and clinicians in Canada (where treatment options and accessibility apply), as confirmed with members of the Save Your Skin Foundation Medical Advisory Board.  Canadian doctors do refer to the NCCN clinical guidelines, and they do support the distribution of NCCN patient guidelines to Canadian patients.

There are guidelines created for many cancers; we have listed below the links to each most relevant to the topic of skin cancer or ocular melanoma, as well as supportive topics such as immunotherapy or treatment side effects, and mental wellness issues and survivorship. NCCN guidelines are easy to read, well illustrated, and a valuable resource for patients, available as online e-booklets, download-able PDF files, or on the “NCCN Guides for Cancer” app for iPhone or Android devices and tablets.

Today marks an exciting day for non-melanoma skin cancer patients, with the release of the new booklet, NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Squamous Cell Skin Cancer, endorsed by Save Your Skin Foundation, and made possible by funding through the NCCN Foundation®. This new book of patient information explains prevention, diagnosis and treatment for squamous cell skin cancer—the second-most common skin cancer (after basal cell cancer). Squamous cell and basal cell skin cancers are responsible for about 5 million annual incidents of non-melanoma skin cancer in the United States1—making them more prevalent than all other types of cancer combined2. Incidence rates have been rising for squamous cell skin cancer in recent years, particularly in younger people3. (source)

This new booklet explains in detail the diagnosis of squamous cell skin cancer, treatment and procedure options, but it also provides personal accounts from patients who have experienced the SCC journey, as well as treating centres and patient resources such as a list of questions to ask at doctor appointments. Save Your Skin Foundation is pleased to support these new guidelines document, and to help connect patients with the resource, as well as to connect NCCN with patients who so generously shared their perspectives with us for the development of the booklet.

SYSF has every confidence that the new NCCN Guidelines for Squamous Cell Carcinoma will help patients understand and manage their skin cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recommended follow-up routine.  This comprehensive resource gives skin cancer patients a reliable checklist to inform decisions in their care, which is much-needed for this common form of cancer, and even more helpful in the metastatic setting.

We look forward to continued collaboration with NCCN, and will offer our support with any new skin cancer guidelines or updates to existing booklets.

To view the guidelines, please click the links below:

NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Squamous Cell Skin Cancer

NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Melanoma

NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines®: Uveal Melanoma

NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Distress

NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer

New! NCCN Guidelines for Patients Explain How to Recognize and Manage Immunotherapy-Related Toxicities, July 2020:

Click here to view the new NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Immunotherapy Side Effects series

 

Virtual Library of NCCN Guidelines® AppAvailable for iPhone/iPad and Android Smartphone/Tablet

 

February 28, 2019 press release detailing news of the NCCN Guidelines for Patients® ~  Squamous Cell Skin Cancer: New Patient Resource from NCCN Clears up Confusion around Highly Common Type of Skin Cancer

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