January 13, 2023 – A California woman developed skin cancer after cutting herself during a manicure. Now she and her doctor are spreading the word about her ordeal as a lesson that speed and persistence in searching for treatment are the keys that make her style of cancer – squamous cell carcinoma – completely curable.
“She cut me, and the cut was not just a normal cuticle cut. She cut me deep, and that was one of the first times that ever happened to me,” said Grace Garcia, 50, TODAY.comand recalled the incident in November 2021.
Garcia has been getting her nails done often for 20 years, she said, but she happened to go to a special salon than her usual one because she couldn't get an appointment in the course of the busy pre-Thanksgiving period. She can't remember if the esthetician opened any packages indicating unused tools.
She applied antibiotic ointment to the cut, nevertheless it didn't heal even after a couple of days. Eventually, the skin closed up and a dark bump formed. It was painful. She went to her doctor, who said it was a “writer's callus,” she told TODAY.com. But it was on her ring finger, which didn't appear to have anything to do with writing. Her doctor said to keep watch over it.
Five months after the cut, she mentioned it at a gynecologist appointment and was referred to a dermatologist, who also advised her to keep watch over the wound. A wart formed. She went back to her GP after which to a different dermatologist. The area was biopsied.
Squamous cell carcinoma is a standard style of skin cancer, in line with the American Academy of Dermatology. It can have many causes, however the cause in Garcia's case was each quite common and really rare: Human papillomavirusesor HPV. HPV is a virus that infects tens of millions of individuals annually but shouldn’t be a typical reason for skin cancer.
“It's pretty rare for a couple of reasons. Generally, the strains that cause cancer from an HPV perspective are more likely to be sexually transmitted,” dermatologist Teo Soleymani, MD, told TODAY.com. “In Grace's case, she had an injury that became the portal of entry. So the thick skin that we have on our hands and feet that serves as a natural barrier to infection and the like was no longer there, and the virus was able to infect her skin.”
Soleymani said Garcia's persistence to find answers probably saved her from losing a finger.
“Her outcomes depend entirely on how early you catch them, and very often they are completely curable,” he said. “Her persistence not only led to a great outcome, she probably saved herself from having to have her finger amputated.”