The first is a conservative re-excision that is an operation to take out any cancer that remains following biopsy, along with a small amount of skin around it. The second form of surgery if a wide surgical excision. It takes out the cancer and some of the skin around the tumor. In the wide surgical excision skin may have to be taken from another area of the body and put on the place where the cancer has been taken out. This technique is known as grafting.
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer.
These drugs may be taken by pill, or it may be injected into the body in the vein or muscle. This is known as a systemic treatment because the drugs enter the bloodstream, travel through the body, and can kill cancer cells throughout the body. A melanoma occurring on an arm or leg may be treated with a technique called isolated arterial perfusion. In this method, the chemotheraputic drugs are put directly into the bloodstream of the arm or leg where the melanoma is found. This allows most of the drug to reach the tumor directly.