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Treatment at NCT

For many years, the Heidelberg Skin Tumor Center has been a recognized center in the area of dermatologic oncology. Its focus is the treatment of patients with malignant melanoma and tumors of the mucous membranes, as well as cancer patients with side effects occurring on the skin. In the past years, an interdisciplinary cooperation with the other medical fields has been established for the benefit of all patients under one roof at NCT, which is a unique cooperation effort on a national level. The spatial and institutional connections of NCT and its outpatient clinics to the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) ensure a quick transfer of newly developed diagnostic and therapeutic procedures into the clinical setting. These innovations are made accessible to the patients through clinical trials even before their possible approval.

The care for our patients is comprehensive: prevention, treatment of primary tumors, and, if necessary, care during the advanced stages of the disease, as well as aftercare. The Skin Tumor Center and its subordinated and cooperating institutions offer all modern procedures for cancer diagnostics and therapy, and supportive care.


Range of services

  • Guideline-based aftercare, treatment, and counseling for all kinds of skin cancer
  • Consultation session for skin lymphoma
  • Consultation session for side effects of skin cancer therapies
  • Consultation session for organ transplantees and chronically immunosuppressed patients
  • Center for second opinions
  • Interdisciplinary case discussion within a tumor board meeting (which means that important therapeutic decisions are made after an expert team has considered the case)
  • Innovative local and systemic treatment methods
  • New therapies within clinical trials


Examination methods/diagnostics

  • Reflected light microscopy (dermoscopy)
  • Lymph node sonography
  • Determination of tumor markers in the blood

In cooperation with the Heidelberg University Hospital Department of Radiology/Nuclear Medicine and the German Cancer Research Center:

  • Abdomen sonography
  • X-ray examinations
  • Computed tomography (CT)
  • Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
  • PET-CT
  • Skeletal scintigraphy


Therapeutic procedures

  • Outpatient and inpatient surgical removal of primary skin tumors including sentinel node biopsy
  • Further surgical interventions (lymph node dissections or organ surgery) carried out by the specialist departments of Heidelberg University Hospital (Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Thoraxklinik, Department of Surgery)
  • Chemotherapies
  • Immunotherapies
  • Targeted therapies (such as BRAF inhibitors)
  • Radiation therapies carried out by the Heidelberg University Hospital Department of Radiation Oncology
  • New therapies within clinical trials


Aftercare

The aftercare serves to identify cancer recurrence and secondary malignant tumors. Depending on the tumor type, its parameters, and the stage of the disease, our patients are examined regularly (clinically and partly also with imaging procedures such as CT/MRI, sonography, or X-rays). Furthermore, our patients are informed about risks for cancer development and adequate prevention measures.