Board. She has served in multiple volunteer roles for her children’s schools and in her local parish. Dr. Spenceri has supported the next generation of physicians and mid level providers by serving as a preceptor for pre-medical and pre-PA students, and she’s been repeatedly nominated by her peers as a Top Doctor in the greater Kansas City area. Dr. Spenceri has a particular interest in patient education and safety, team building and medical staff training, lab technical processing, and quality of care. In addition to maintaining board certification and ongoing continuing medical education, Dr. Spenceri is one of a small number of dermatologists who have attained life coach certification, providing her with training and skill to help empower patients, providers, and medical teammates with better decision making, increased emotional intelligence, and optimized goal setting. Outside of the office, Dr. Spenceri enjoys daily walks and workouts, cooking up new and favorite culinary delights, practicing her faith and growing deeper in her spiritual life, dreaming up her next travel adventure, reading good fiction & non-fiction, and playing her new favorite game (mahjong!) with friends and family.
Dr. Spenceri is accepting new Mohs and dermatologic surgery patients.
Skin Cancer Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer . More than 3.5 million skin cancers are diagnosed annually in more than 2 million people. Current estimates are that one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) are the two most common forms of skin cancer, but both are easily treated if detected early. These tumors most commonly arise from genetic mutations in the skin caused by sun damage. Fair complexion, light eyes (blue, green, hazel) and family history of skin cancer all increase a person’s risk for developing skin cancer. Patients who take immune-suppressing medicines, those with a history of bad sunburns or certain medical conditions (leukemia) are also at increased risk for developing skin cancers. If not completely removed, skin cancers invade and destroy important structures. Although basal cell carcinomas rarely metastasize (spread to other parts of the body), squamous cell carcinomas can develop and spread more quickly. Melanoma , the third most common type of skin cancer is the most likely to spread and can be very dangerous. Melanoma is most commonly treated by excision with a margin, but is treated by Mohs surgery in some instances. Mohs Surgery Mohs micrographic surgery is a specialized surgical procedure used to treat skin cancers, typically of the head and neck. Certain tumors of the rest of the body are sometimes treated with Mohs surgery as well. The technique offers two main advantages over traditional skin cancer removal treatments: • The highest cure rate . Mohs surgery for primary basal cell carcinoma, for example, has a 98- 99% cure rate. • Tissue sparing . Because Mohs surgery is a tissue sparing surgery, where only the skin with tumor in it is removed, the patient is left with the smallest defect possible. Smaller defects mean smaller scars in the end, after the defect is closed. In traditional excisions, the edges are not checked in "real-time" so safety margins are necessary. This often leads to larger defects and eventually larger scars. On the face, even a couple of millimeters difference in a scar length can make a big cosmetic difference. (See below for more about scars.) Not all tumors require Mohs surgery and other good treatments are available for skin cancer. The most common treatment for skin cancer is physical destruction by either cryotherapy (freeze-treating) or curettage with electrodessication (scrape & burn). Topical chemotherapy (prescription cream) is sometimes used for pre-cancer or very early skin cancers. A newer technique for treating early tumors include photodynamic therapy (PDT), whereby a medicine is applied to the treatment site and later activated by narrow-band light therapy. Tumors
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