Fredrick Mohs, the founder of the technique that caries his name,  used his method for the treatment of Melanoma as well as basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas. Since then Mohs surgery has become the gold standard for treating none melanoma skin cancer. However more recent data  is confirming the fact that Mohs surgery can work as well if not better than traditional surgery in the management of melanoma as well. In a recent retrospective study looked at the outcome of over 50,000 melanomas of the head and neck treated with either traditional wide excision or Mohs surgery. After controlling for potential confounding variables, patients treated with MMS were more likely to survive after 5-years than patients treated with wide local excision. Certainly it is time to seriously consider Mohs surgery for melanomas of the head and neck as well as the usual none melanoma skin cancers.

Citation:

Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
Improved Overall Survival of Melanoma of the Head and Neck Treated With Mohs Micrographic Surgery Versus Wide Local Excision
J Am Acad Dermatol 2019 Aug 29;[EPub Ahead of Print], J Hanson, A Demer, W Liszewski, N Foman, I Maher