Recurrence rates lower for re-excision of basal cell carcinoma vs. clinical follow-up
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MILAN — Patients who underwent re-excision for positive margins after incomplete surgery for basal cell carcinoma had significantly lower recurrence rates than those who were followed up clinically, according to a poster presented here.
“There are different therapeutic modalities but surgical excision is the preferred approach [for basal cell carcinoma],” Maria López-Pardo Rico, MD, and colleagues wrote in their poster, which was presented at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress. “However, the management of incomplete excisions is controversial.”
Patients who underwent re-excision for positive margins after incomplete surgery for basal cell carcinoma had significantly lower recurrence rates than those who were followed up clinically.
In an effort to define the percentage of recurrence in basal cell carcinomas with positive margins after surgery, the researchers from University Hospital of Santiago De Compostela, Spain, retrospectively reviewed medical records of 718 cases of basal cell carcinoma that were excised in 2017. Of 86 tumors with affected margins after excision, the overall percentage of tumor recurrence was 18.6%, which included 23.2% of the 56 patients (n = 13) who followed up clinically and 10% of the 30 patients (n = 3) who underwent a re-excision (P = .02).
No statistically significant differences were observed between other variables studied: age, sex, location, size, histological subtype, type of re-excision surgery or area of compromised margin.
“A comprehensive assessment is recommended to decide the therapeutic approach in case of incomplete excision,” the authors wrote.