Mohs Surgery

This outpatient treatment for advanced skin cancer lets us spare more of your healthy tissue.

A cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming. Henry Ford’s skin cancer specialists offer what every patient needs: quick diagnosis and personalized treatment. If your condition requires surgery, our skin cancer surgeons may be able to spare healthy tissue and still remove the cancer with Mohs surgery.

What is Mohs surgery?

Mohs micrographic surgery (Mohs surgery) is a multi-step procedure we use to treat advanced skin cancer. This outpatient procedure offers the highest cure rate for skin cancer, even if a cancer has come back after previous treatment.

What types of skin cancer does Mohs surgery treat?

Mohs surgery is a common treatment for basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. We don’t use it for most melanomas, though we are working to perfect this process.

There are some less common tumors we treat with Mohs surgery, such as dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, atypical fibroxanthoma, sebaceous carcinoma, and some other tumor types.

Am I a candidate for Mohs surgery?

Ideal candidates for Mohs surgery include patients whose skin cancer:

• Has come back
• Is growing irregularly or rapidly
• Is located in a sensitive or visible area, such as the eyes, nose, lips, scalp, fingers, toes, or genitals
• Is large or aggressive

What is the success rate for Mohs surgery?

Mohs surgery offers the highest possibility for curing skin cancer. In fact, Mohs surgery cures 99 percent of new cancers and 95 percent of recurrent cancers.

How experienced are the Mohs surgeons at Henry Ford?

The Henry Ford Mohs Surgery Clinic was established in 1967. It’s one of the largest, most experienced Mohs surgery clinics in the United States. We perform more than 2,000 procedures each year.

Our team includes surgeons with extensive experience in Mohs micrographic surgery, dermatopathology, and reconstruction for scarring.

The Mohs laboratory is licensed in accordance with the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments and certified by the College of American Pathologists.