Anyone had skin cancer surgery and end up with a lot more skin removed?

All the time: If you are diagnosed with melanoma by a small biopsy, you will need more skin removed.

Yes...: Most skin cancer excisions are done with some means of checking the margins....Meaning the surgeon will continue to remove skin until the margins are all clear (and no more cancer remains). Larger tumors, recurrent cancers, and tumors in the central face tend to be the ones which can turn out to require a much bigger resection that one might guess before the surgery starts.

Yes: Standard treatment for melanoma requires taking wide margins determined by the depth of the lesion. The margins or amount of skin can be quite large depending on the invasiveness of the melanoma determined by breslow or clark's staging and can result in a very large scar.

Yes: Some skin cancers have poorly defined borders and thus only show up on a microscope. Thus more tissue is removed till all cancer is gone even if it wasn't visible to naked eye.

Yes: It is common to require more skin removed after the initial biopsy. Often what appears on the surface may only be the "tip of the iceberg" especially if the skin cancer has been present for a long time.

Skin cancer: There are different techniques to remove skin cancer. The technique that has the highest cure rate and that spares the most normal tissue is called mohs micrographic surgery. This method allows the cancer to be traced out under the microscope by examining the entire periphery of the excised tumor. If any roots are seen the excision and microscopic checking continues until tumor free plane obtained.

Skin cancer cure: Skin cancer like all other cancers can become deadly. To ensure complete removal sometimes a lot more skin has to be removed than what you see on the surface. This is done with the help of microscopic examination of the boundaries. So the amount of skin removal is directly related to the amount of skin cancer found under the microscope.