This is what a skin cancer can look like behind the ear
Skin cancers, such as this basal cell carcinoma, can be tough to diagnose, even for physicians. This man had the spot here for years and had even shown it to his family doctor, who prescribed a cream for it. He thought it was from his glasses rubbing, but that is a common mistake among people.
The truth is that most skin cancers are confused with other conditions initially as they look so ‘bland’. As you can see here, it isn’t dark, it isn’t bleeding and it isn’t raised all that much…but that doesn’t mean it isn’t cancer. We see hundreds of patients a year just in my practice with skin cancer and less than a handful say to me: “I think I have a skin cancer.”
Most of my skin cancer patients come in with something else and we find their cancers incidentally, just like I did with this patient. So, it pays to be observant, but it pays even more to go to a dermatologist at least once a year if you have had skin cancer in the past or if you have a mole or growth that is changing, bleeding, growing or unusual.
The basal cell carcinoma that this patient had is easily treatable. He had a method of surgery called Moh’s Surgery on it and has about a 96% to 98% chance of cure. The best part is that he can now wear the glasses easily that initially were thought to be causing this!