Research has recently shown that high doses of isotretinoin inhibit the function of defective natural killer cells, thus reducing the amount of new skin cancers that develop. Other preventive measures are to wear protective clothing in the sun, and to wear sunscreen. There is a wide variety of treatment options for non-melanoma, some are several decades old and others are still being tested. Surgery removes all cancer cells and makes use of skin grafts, pieces of skin transferred from one part of the body to another part. Curettage is usually used to treat basal cell carcinoma, a local anesthetic is applied and the cancer is scooped out by a curette, then electrodessication kills all the remaining cancer cells.
Cryosurgery is utilized for solar keratoses, and well-defined basal and squamous cell carcinomas.
In cryosurgery liquid nitrogen is sprayed on the growth. Moh's technique is also known as chemosurgery, the cancer is removed one thin layer at a time until only healthy tissue remains. There are also a wide variety of new treatments for non-melanoma available. PDT uses light-activated drugs for the treatment of cancerous tumors. This suggests that retinoid therapy may be able to prevent skin cancer by enhancing response from the immune system or through cell differentiation in the skin.