Grace Garcia said a nail technician cut her cuticle while giving her a manicure, causing minor bleeding and a cut that never healed properly.
A San Gabriel, California woman who had a rare form of nail cancer caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV, shares her story to alert others. It was discovered after she suffered a cut at a beauty salon.
Grace Garcia, 50, who has had her manicure for about 20 years, visited a “fancy” new salon in November 2021 when her regular spot was booked, according to TODAY.com.
Garcia said the nail technician cut her cuticle during the manicure, which caused a little bleeding. When she returned home, Grace applied antibiotic ointment to her wound, but the cut did not heal quite well.
“It sprouted, whatever was in her hand,” Garcia told TODAY, unable to recall if she saw the nail technician open new tools before the procedure. “Showed up. It looked like a wart, and I was like, ‘What the hell is this?’”
He didn’t improve after a few days, so he went back to the salon to tell management about the employee’s error, only to be told that the technician in question had been fired “(after) many complaints.”
Garcia finally went to the doctor and they prescribed an antibiotic for his finger. Still, he never got better. His finger was sensitive to the point where it hurt if he accidentally brushed against something. When the wound finally healed, a lump darker than the rest of his skin appeared in its place.
In April 2022, five months after the nail appointment, Garcia mentioned the finger during a visit to her gynecologist, who advised her to see a dermatologist. The first dermatologist suggested she keep an eye on it, but Garcia got a second opinion and underwent a biopsy.
According to Teo Soleymani, the UCLA Health dermatologist who ultimately treated Garcia, nail cancers are relatively rare. In Garcia’s case, squamous cell carcinoma, a common skin cancer that is less aggressive than melanoma, was detected.
“Generally speaking, strains that cause cancer from an HPV standpoint tend to be more sexually transmitted,” Soleymani told TODAY.com. “In Grace’s case, she had an injury that became the gateway. So that thick skin that we have on our hands and feet that acts as a natural barrier against infection and things like that was no longer the case, and the virus was able to infect her skin.”
Garcia’s cancer spread quickly, but she caught it early and was diagnosed with Stage 1 cancer. She underwent Mohs surgery, a procedure recently performed on First Lady Jill Biden, People magazine reported, which allows medical professionals see “100% of the edge” of cancer. As a result, doctors completely removed it and Garcia will not need radiation treatment. However, she should follow up with her doctor to schedule routine skin cancer screenings.
Soleymani pointed out that Garcia’s determination was key. “Your results from him are entirely dictated by how early you catch them and very often they are completely curable,” Soleymani said, reported TODAY.com. “His persistence of him, not only was he able to have a great result, but he probably saved himself from having his finger amputated.”
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Post-California woman develops rare HPV nail cancer, discovered after salon visit first featured on TheGrio.
