Dr. Aleksandr Itkin, MD

Dr Itkin was quite amusing with his spin on happy and object lesson of his level of education and understanding of Cutaneous lymphomas; there are 9 T cell lymphomas, and 3 B cell lymphomas which the rash is red. Although everything that I asked or said he was consistently obstinate to. He said the patches on my knees and ankles were due to other root causes but no one in my ancestry has had these. He didn't allow me to tell him my mt DNA haplo group, that is from my mothers clan is A 2 h being of Siberia, goes back 17,000 years. It has its roots in Africa. I found this out from doing my DNA several times. So I had source information, that he took badly, and it said your skin doesn't react and become red if you are Asian or black. Yes, I don't look black but have the DNA. Sorry I think he should have been more open minded and have some empathy for someone that is ill. Even if there was some question just do a punch biopsy.

I was nervous about having this cyst removed. Dr. Itkin was fantastic. I barely felt the injections. It was completely pain free. He used stitches under the skin and glue to close up the cut. It has been 16 days and I can now barely see the scar.

He diagnosed my problem and treated it so that it was gone quickly. He didn't say I had to come back!

Dr. Itkin is a wonderful Dr. He keeps a great eye on my skin

I have been a patient of Dr. Itkin with Scripps Clinic, San Diego for over 15 years. He has treated me for pre-cancerous skin conditions and has performed blue light, biopsies, and surgical excision for me. His knowledge and skill is the very best, he listens, is outgoing and engaged.

This is an initial impression after one visit, but Dr. Itkin was personable, attentive, answered all of my questions.

I'm a fair skined lady with lots of skin cancers. Dr. Itkin is a kind very caring doctor that always listens and does a good job with leaving almost no scaring. I highly recommend him.

He didn't read my chart, glanced at my moles and said nothing was wrong, and then told me to come back in two years. The below paragraph is how I know he didn't even bother to look at my chart. Instead, he risked my health and relied on his "magic" ability to glance at a mole and know it's fine without knowing a thing about the patient history.When he told me to come back in two years I said that my previous doctor said every 6 months. He asked why and I told him I had atypical results before. He was surprised and asked where. Then he said not to worry about it as long as no immediate family has had skin cancer. Then I told him my mother, uncle, and grandfather have all had skin cancer. Then, again caught off-guard, he asked how old my mom was. I said 35 (I'm 29). These are all questions the nurse had asked and recorded 35 minutes before (he had me wait over half an hour and still didn't bother to read the chart). Then he brushed it off, said the doctor probably wanted money and that's… why he said every 6 months, and told me instead of two years to come back in one year. Then I mentioned that the two moles were new (because I'm an idiot and went to a tanning booth last year before coachella... I know, I'm an idiot) and he said to keep an eye on them.He's a bad, lazy doctor who risks my health so he can be late and get through the day easier. Definitely not recommended.

Dr. Itkin is focused and efficient and he and his staff were courteous and professional. I would have preferred more in-depth explanations (for example, why he decided it was important to biopsy a lesion). I was shocked when I got his bill: $550 for about 15 minutes including the biopsy scraping, plus another $250 for the biopsy lab.