Few Patients With Positive Margins After Basal Cell Excision Have Recurrence
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, July 1, 2024 -- Among patients with incompletely excised basal cell carcinoma (BCC), only about 16 percent with positive histopathologic margins have clinical recurrence, according to a study published online June 13 in Dermatology.
Maria Daviti, M.D., from Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece, and colleagues reported the real-life management of incompletely excised BCC in a tertiary referral center and compared recurrence rates according to management modality in a retrospective study. All BCCs with available histopathologic assay reporting at least one involved margin (lateral or deep) over a five-year period were identified. Patients were categorized into three groups: immediate re-excision (group 1; 26 patients); follow-up without any additional treatment (group 2; 40 patients); and treatment with adjuvant/complementary nonsurgical treatment (group 3; 18 patients).
The researchers found that based on histopathological reports, 53.8 percent of 26 tumors in group 1 that were re-excised had residual tumor. After a mean follow-up of 17 months, a clinical recurrence occurred in 14 of 84 patients (16.7 percent), with a median of 14 months to recurrence. Recurrence developed in 25 percent of the patients without any additional treatment, compared with 11.1 percent of those receiving nonsurgical treatments.
"Our study suggests that positive histopathologic margins after BCC excision result in a clinical recurrence only in a proportion of patients," the authors write. "This percentage is higher when no further treatment is applied and lower when the area is re-excised or treated with imiquimod alone or combined with cryotherapy."
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted July 2024
Read this next
ASCO: Durvalumab Plus FLOT Beneficial for Resectable Gastric, GE Junction Cancer
THURSDAY, June 5, 2025 -- For patients with resectable gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, durvalumab plus fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and docetaxel...
Substantial and Increasing Burden of Skin Cancer Seen in Older Adults
FRIDAY, May 30, 2025 -- Older adults have a substantial and increasing burden of skin cancer, according to a study published online May 21 in JAMA Dermatology. Ruiyao Wang, M.D...
Endolymphatic Sac Decompression Effective for Vertigo, Migraine
WEDNESDAY, May 28, 2025 -- For Meniere disease (MD) patients with migraine, endolymphatic sac decompression (ELSD) is effective, providing postoperative relief of vertigo and...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.