Mohs’ Chemosurgery in Palliative Care of Head and Neck Cancer

Abstract

Skin-infiltration observed in advanced cancer severely deteriorates patients’ quality of life with symptoms such as bleeding, exudation, odor, and severe pain. Bleeding from skin-infiltration of head and neck cancer often becomes uncontrollable and patients with the symptom likely require long-term inpatient care.

Mohs’ chemosurgery, was originally developed to treat skin cancer, but has recently been applied to relieve skin-infiltration symptoms in advanced cancer patients. This method improves quality of life of patients with locally advanced, and unresectable skin lesions especially by reducing the likelihood of recurrent bleeding. This section summarizes the procedure and indications of Mohs’ chemosurgery for otolaryngologists, who may not be familiar with the method.