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YouTuber Joey Graceffa has revealed that he has been diagnosed with skin cancer.
“I have skin cancer,” the 33-year-old internet star said in a TikTok video posted on August 8. “Um, that’s funny. No, it’s actually not funny at all.”
Graceffa told her 473,000 followers how she discovered she had basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer. The content creator pointed out a circular red mark on the right side of her nose – the cancerous mark.
She said: “I had to have a biopsy done to determine that it was skin cancer. I actually have this mark, this redness, on my nose for about a year and a half or two years now.”
According to the YouTube star, “several” dermatologists had examined the red mark and argued that it was just a “broken blood vessel.” However, Graceffa was inclined to go back to the dermatologist when she noticed a scab starting to form.
“I literally passed out in the chair when they did the biopsy,” Graceffa said. “Not because it hurt or anything, but because I get nauseous when it comes to anything involving blood or gore.”
A few days after the biopsy, Graceffa received a call from her doctor telling her she had basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer that occurs “when the DNA of the basal cells of the epidermis of the skin is damaged,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Basal cell carcinoma is one of the most common forms of skin cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
Graceffa explained that she is now considering her options following the diagnosis. The doctor reportedly recommended Mohs surgery, an operation in which thin layers of the affected skin are cut away to try to remove the cancer. However, Graceffa was also thinking about taking a natural treatment such as castor oil and aloe vera or undergoing radiation therapy.
The thought of Mohs surgery, a three-hour operation, made the internet icon dizzy. “If I passed out 40 seconds into the biopsy, how am I going to last 45 minutes? I have no idea,” Graceffa confessed.
At the time, Graceffa said she was leaning more toward radiation treatment. According to the American Cancer Society, radiation therapy for skin cancer involves using “high-energy rays to kill cancer cells.”
