14 DAY TRIAL // A brave woman from Hertfordshire, England, had her entire forehead removed to combat a very rare form of skin cancer.
Pip Caliskan developed a dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) growth, which spread to the soft tissue of the top of her face. Doctors say this is a “one-in-a-million” tumor, with only 1,000 cases reported in U.S. This extremely rare form of cancer is rarely fatal, but can have devastating effects.
The 45-year-old mother was diagnosed in 1996 and underwent the radical surgery in 2008. She now has an artificial forehead, after surgeons cut away the skin and 85 per cent of her skull bone in order to remove the tumor and stop it from spreading.
When she was 27, Pip went to the doctors complaining of a lump on her forehead. Initially, medics thought she developed a cyst along her hairline and told her it would go away on its own if she left it alone. But the bump got bigger and she decided to have it removed.
Specialists explained that the tumor consisted of spindles of cancerous cells spreading across her forehead and said that new growths could develop if the tumor were not removed entirely.
The woman, who lives in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, underwent two rounds of surgery in 1996 and 1998. She thought she had beaten the cancer, but in 2008 the nasty tumor returned, so doctors had to carry out the radical operation.
“The surgeon left just 15 per cent of the thickness of my skull bone. I've got no muscle, nerves, soft tissue on my forehead. There's nothing left,” Ms Caliskan said, according to Daily Mail.
The massive amount of skull bone that had to be removed was replaced with a skin graft made from animal collagen.
“I walk around for most of my life making sure I cover up my forehead. I'm very self conscious and get very paranoid about it. […] Every so often I scratch some skin away from the graft, exposing some bone,” she added.
Pip is now in remission and wants to offer her support to other people who have been diagnosed with DFSP. For that, she started a Facebook group for other sufferers to get in touch. Currently, the support group, called “dfsp - DERMATOFIBROSARCOMA PROTUBERANS,” has 600 members and is seeking charity status.
“I am now in touch with hundreds of people from all over the world who have experienced the condition and at least 80 per cent of them carry significant scars,” Pip said.