“A facial cleaning made me discover I had cancer”

Days before traveling to Sao Paulo, Daiane Lima, a 27-year-old woman, decided to have a facial cleanse. She had no idea that the procedure to clean the pores and reduce the grease on her face would help her discover skin cancer.

Lima reports that facial cleaning is carried out regularly and, in mid-2022, he scheduled the procedure again with a beautician from Erechim, the city where he lives. However, after the procedure, she says that she noticed that the area around her nose was sensible.

“At the end of a few days, there was a small sore, but I thought it was due to a black spot or something like that and I started using a healing ointment”, he recalls.

Lima, who works performing piercings, details that in the following weeks the heritage healed, but then it didn’t disappear at all. She remained there for more than a month.. Y fue después de un bleed cuando he was told about the injury.

“I woke up and my nose bled a lot. It was then when I decided to ask for an appointment with a dermatologist ”, she tells.

As in the case of medical insurance, the young woman, who works for her own account, has to use her savings to pay for a private consultation. And it was the first visit to the doctor when The suspicion arose that that sore on the nose that was not cured could actually be a skin cancer.

“When the doctor came up with this possibility, I broke down crying. Think about a thousand things. As I was young and there were no cases of skin cancer in the family, I never imagined that this could happen to me. My world fell apart at that moment”, tells the young woman.

The result of the biopsy confirmed that Lima had a basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, and that he had to undergo a surgical intervention to extirpate it.

In the past, they underwent the intervention and they extirpated part of the skin of the face to extract the tumor. She needed 27 stitches of suture and was under two months. Her diagnosis also made the young woman calm in the last semester of her history career.

“My life completely changed from one day to another. It’s not just about the diagnosis, it’s about all the consequences that lead to. In addition to paralyzing the university and work, there is also the question of what affects self-esteem, above all because my cancer is in my face, a very visible place ”, he reports.

In addition to the mark on the skin, Lima says that cancer also provoked a crisis of anxiety and depression.

“My self-esteem is over. I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror and I avoided going out to the street. Everyone asked me what I had done and why I had a scar. I didn’t leave the house for a long time because I didn’t want them to come. For not saying that people make jokes that make me hurt, like calling me fat. I have no idea why my body is there ”, she says, signaling that the medicines will lead to fattening.

What is Basal Cell Carcinoma?

According to the National Cancer Institute of Brazil (INCA), basal cell carcinoma is the most frequent type of skin cancer in melanoma and represents around 80% of diagnoses. It originates in the basal cells of the epidermis and is present mainly as a lesion (injured or nodule) with pink, translucent or pearly edges, which does not heal and can ulcerate and bleed.

“It is a skin cancer considered among all tumors to be the most benign, because it never directs tumor cells to other organs. This only occurs when the treatment takes a lot of time and the tumor is aggressive, invading the space, for example. However, these are rare”, explains Reinaldo Tovo, coordinator of the Dermatology department at Hospital Sirio-Libanés in Sao Paulo.

The main risk factor for basal cell carcinoma is direct exposure to the sun. Light-skinned people are the most vulnerable to the disease, which can appear after 40 years and in areas of the body directly exposed to ultraviolet radiation, such as the face, the ass, the back and the chest, for example. The disease affects men more than women, and is rare in children, adolescents and black people.

“The main risk factor is prolonged exposure to the sun, especially during childhood and adolescence. The sun is a cumulative question, the more sun you take over life, the greater the chances of suffering from cancer of skin in the adult age. Whoever has the clearest skin, that person who turns red and not dark when exposed to the sun, also has more possibilities of developing skin cancer”, adds Vanessa D’Andretta Tanaka, dermatologist at the Hospital de Amor in Barretos (Sao Paulo ).

Diagnosis and treatment

The diagnosis is supposed to be clinical. The dermatologist evaluates the lesion on the skin and, in case of doubt, can perform a dermoscopy, which consists of placing a lens over the lesion to carry out a more detailed analysis. To confirm the diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma, a biopsy is performed.

The standard treatment for skin cancer in melanoma is surgery, since the procedure allows greater control of the margins of the tumor, thus providing a greater guarantee of cure. The objective of the surgery is to completely extirpate the lesion and the surrounding tissue as a safety margin.

“This type of surgery is supposed to be very safe.since most of the lesions are in the initial stages, with a low risk of metastasis”, says Tiago Kenji, technical director of Oncología Dasa at Hospital Santa Paula, in Sao Paulo.

preventive care

Some precautions such as good nutrition, not drinking alcohol, avoiding tobacco and, above all, avoiding excessive exposure to the sun, help prevent skin cancer.

“Personas must use sunscreen in all exposed areas and the filter must be adapted to the type of skin, whether you are younger or mature, grease or prone to acne”, adds Tovo.

It is also important to protect yourself by taking clothes and accessories with sun protection, such as t-shirts, hats and hats. If the person cannot afford to buy these items, clothes and accessories will also help to protect the skin, provided they completely cover the area.