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Living with cancer· Appointment prep

Appointment sheet: Advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

One page to bring and write on: your details, the questions for Advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma plus your own, the words you may hear, what to bring, the treatments the standard of care names, and room for the answers and agreed next steps. What you type stays in this browser. Print it or save it as a PDF. New to all this? Start with the first 60 days. Orientation, not medical advice.

Tick the questions to print

All of this cancer's questions start ticked. Untick what does not apply; ticks are kept in this browser. .

Your own questions

Shared with the prep pack, so questions you add there appear here too.

Print or save as PDF

Use (or Ctrl+P, Cmd+P on a Mac). To keep a copy, choose Save as PDF as the destination in the print dialog. Only the sheet prints; the controls stay on screen. Your typed notes print where you typed them; empty fields print as ruled lines to write on.

Appointment sheet

Advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

Prepared with OnCo (onco.cc/prep/advanced-cutaneous-scc/). Orientation, not medical advice; your team knows your case.

My details

Name
Date of appointment
Hospital and clinician
Who is coming with me

What I know, what is unclear, changes to discuss

Saved in this browser
What I know so far
What is unclear to me
Changes since last time

My questions

21 on the sheet
Newly diagnosed
  1. 1.What is my exact diagnosis, stage, and grade, and which tests established them?
  2. 2.Which biomarkers have been tested on my tumour (for example Tumour mutational burden, Perineural and lymphovascular invasion, Depth of invasion and differentiation grade, Immunosuppression status, PD-L1 expression), and what were the results?
  3. 3.Which subtype is my cancer, and does that change the recommended treatment?
  4. 4.Is germline (inherited) genetic testing recommended for me or my family?
High-risk resectable disease
  1. 5.For my situation (high-risk resectable disease), which of the standard options do you recommend and why?
  2. 6.Am I a candidate for Cemiplimab, and what side effects should I expect?
Adjuvant after surgery and radiotherapy
  1. 7.For my situation (adjuvant after surgery and radiotherapy), which of the standard options do you recommend and why?
  2. 8.Am I a candidate for Cemiplimab, and what side effects should I expect?
Locally advanced or metastatic, first line
  1. 9.For my situation (locally advanced or metastatic, first line), which of the standard options do you recommend and why?
  2. 10.Am I a candidate for Cemiplimab, Pembrolizumab, Cosibelimab, and what side effects should I expect?
  3. 11.How do the results of EMPOWER-CSCC-1 and KEYNOTE-629 apply to someone like me?
Immunotherapy-ineligible or refractory
  1. 12.For my situation (immunotherapy-ineligible or refractory), which of the standard options do you recommend and why?
  2. 13.Am I a candidate for Cetuximab, Carboplatin, Vusolimogene oderparepvec, and what side effects should I expect?
  3. 14.How do the results of Study Evaluating Cemiplimab Alone and Combined With RP1 in Treating Advanced Squamous Skin Cancer and An Open-label Study Using ASP-1929 Photoimmunotherapy in Combination With Anti-PD1 Therapy in EGFR Expressing Advanced Solid Tumors apply to someone like me?
Transplant recipients
  1. 15.For my situation (transplant recipients), which of the standard options do you recommend and why?
  2. 16.Am I a candidate for Everolimus, Cemiplimab, and what side effects should I expect?
Any stage
  1. 17.Are there clinical trials I could join, for example of Study Evaluating Cemiplimab Alone and Combined With RP1 in Treating Advanced Squamous Skin Cancer, An Open-label Study Using ASP-1929 Photoimmunotherapy in Combination With Anti-PD1 Therapy in EGFR Expressing Advanced Solid Tumors, Study of Intralesional Cemiplimab in Adult Patients With Early Stage Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma, HMBD-001?
  2. 18.Would a second opinion at a high-volume centre change anything, and can you help arrange it?
  3. 19.What supportive care (symptom control, nutrition, exercise, mental health, financial help) is available from the start?
  4. 20.I read that “Transplant recipients, who have the highest incidence, cannot safely receive the most effective drugs”. How does that affect my plan?
  5. 21.I read that “About half of patients do not respond to PD-1 blockade and there is no approved second-line therapy”. How does that affect my plan?

The words I may hear

  • Mohs surgery: Skin cancer surgery in which the tumour is removed in thin layers, each checked under the microscope on the spot, until the edges are clear; it spares the most normal skin.
  • Tumour mutational burden (TMB): How many mutations a tumour has.
  • Pathologic complete response (pCR): No invasive cancer left in the breast and lymph nodes when the surgeon removes the tissue after pre-surgery treatment.
  • Neoadjuvant / adjuvant / perioperative: Neoadjuvant therapy is treatment given before surgery, adjuvant therapy is treatment given after it, and perioperative therapy is both.

Tests and results to bring

Biomarker results to ask for: Tumour mutational burden (very high; ultraviolet signature), Perineural and lymphovascular invasion, Depth of invasion and differentiation grade, Immunosuppression status (transplant, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, HIV), PD-L1 expression (not required for treatment), Pathological response after neoadjuvant immunotherapy.

Bring copies of scan reports, pathology and blood results, and a list of every medicine and supplement.

The treatments I may be offered

From the standard of care recorded for this cancer; which apply depends on your stage and biomarkers. Ask which the team recommends and why.

Answers and next steps

Saved in this browser
What I was told
Agreed next steps, dates and who to call