@lynw Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect! I'm sorry to hear you need to have treatment for an SCC. So many of us here have been through the same thing; is this your first one?

Where is the cheek lesion they want to treat? Would a surgical removal create a scar area you don't want, or hamper expression? For example, I have had surgical removal of SCC on both eyebrows, and now sport "abbreviated" eyebrows. There is also a scar in the middle of my forehead from SCC removal, that I refer to as my "third eye". For me, I would prefer a surgical removal regardless of the location.

What has your dermatologist indicated is the preferred method they want to use, and why?
Ginger

Hello @lynw. What kind of treatment success do you get with the xray treatment? I was under the impression that SCC is not very responsive to radiation. When I had radiation for my SCC I also had a targeted IV treatment once weekly to sensitize the tumor to radiation. This was all after surgery because margins were not clear. Is there a possibility of surgery after radiation if that is not successful? These are questions to ask your medical team to help make your decision. I have metastatic SCC and have been lucky to live 13 years with that. It is nothing to mess around with. Go for the cure.

I had SCC and had Mohs surgery on my scalp Sept. 2023. It took 5 months for the scar to heal, and my scalp bled for about 10 days after surgery. My scalp has been frozen, burned and cut. I know that Mohs is considered the “gold standard”. After the Mohs I vowed never to have those procedures done again. Since I have AKs that might turn into cancer I would go the Gentle Cure – Image Guided SRT route. At worst, what the radiation does is leave some redness that looks like a sunburn and then fade away. Good luck.