At first, Krista Easom, a 24-year-old law school student from New Jersey, figured the little red bump on her foot was nothing more than a blister. It didn’t hurt, but after a couple months, it didn’t go away either. She booked an appointment with a dermatologist to have it removed. It didn’t bother her much and she wasn’t worried.
Easom was healthy, had no family history of cancer and was getting ready to enjoy some time in her newly adopted city of Chicago, Illinois. That’s when she received the results from her dermatologist, who removed a part of the blister and had it tested.
Only a handful of surgeons in the country are doing this and it makes a world of difference to the patient.
Unexpected results
The results were unexpected. It turned out that little red bump was malignant melanoma, the leading cause of skin cancer death in the United States. On average, malignant melanoma kills one person every hour, which translates to more than 8,700 Americans each year.
Tests and treatment
Further tests revealed that Easom’s melanoma had spread to her lymph nodes. This meant that she needed a lymphadenectomy to have them removed.A lymphadenectomy is a major surgical procedure in which the lymph nodes are removed and a sample of tissue is checked under a microscope for signs of cancer. In the case of a regional lymphadenectomy, some of the lymph nodes in the tumor area are removed. A radical lymphadenectomy requires the removal of most or all of the lymph nodes in the tumor area. In most cases, the surgery includes a five-day stay in the hospital followed by an extensive recovery.
Easom and her family looked into her options and she was referred to Northwestern Medicine? surgical oncologists Jeffery D. Wayne, MD and Karl Bilimoria, MD, two of the very few surgeons in the country using a minimally invasive procedure to remove groin lymph nodes. Both physicians are members of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and offer this laparoscopic procedure which may drastically reduce the recovery rate and chance of infection for patients like Easom.
“Only a handful of surgeons in the country are doing this and it makes a world of difference to the patient,” said Bilimoria, a surgical oncologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and an assistant professor of surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Instead of a 12-inch scar, this laparoscopic procedure has only three very small incisions that total less than one inch. Because these incisions are so small, the chance of infection is far less. And instead of a five-day stay in the hospital, Krista went home the day after her surgery.”
The only potential cure
“Lymph nodes are the most frequent site of the spread of metastatic melanoma and surgically removing them is the only potential for a cure,” Wayne said. “Surgery is the only way to make sure we get all of the cancer. We wanted to give Krista the option to move on with her life. The minimally-invasive procedure was by far, the quickest and safest way for her to do that,” he explained.
Just a few weeks post-surgery, Easom is already on her way. She will have regular check-ups for awhile but her CT scans and blood tests show that the surgery successfully removed all of her cancer. Easom is participating in a national clinical trial to see if this minimally invasive procedure can help other melanoma patients.
“I had this major surgery and didn’t take any time off from school or my internship,” Easom said. “The incisions were so small, I couldn’t even see them. They are monitoring my leg to make sure the swelling goes down, but I’m getting better and better each day.”
Prevention
The American Cancer Society recommends professional skin examinations every year for people older than 40 years of age, and every three years for people ages 20 to 40. The best way to prevent skin cancer is to reduce exposure to sunlight especially between 10 am. and 4 pm when ultraviolet light is very intense.
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