How are seborrheic keratoses treated?

When brown spots on the face begin to raise up, they may be benign seborrheic keratoses. Plastic surgeons like to shave these off. They can be frozen off, but this procedure often leaves a white mark on the skin. Also, when the lesion is shaved, a specimen is available to look at under the microscope. Not so with freezing. The importance of pathologically examining the lesion under the microscope cannot be overemphasized. In a study done at Harvard Medical School, more than nine thousand specimens were sent to the pathologist with the presumed diagnosis of seborrheic keratosis. Under the microscope, sixty-one turned out to be melanomas, the most lethal type of skin cancer. The lesson is: Unless the specimens are looked at under the microscope, cancers will be missed.