Korean J Dermatol.  2018 Mar;56(3):167-171.

Clinical Features and Recurrence Rate of Basal Cell Carcinomas Treated with Surgical Excision

• Shin YS
• Park BW
• Jang YJ
• Cho EB
• Park EJ
• Kim KH
• Kim KJ

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer. Surgical excision is commonly used as the therapeutic modality. However, there is insufficient data on the prognosis of Korean patients who have undergone surgical excision for basal cell carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
We therefore retrospectively analyzed the effectiveness of surgical excision in patients with basal cell carcinoma and compared it with previous studies.
METHODS
From 2009 to 2015, we enrolled 138 patients with primary basal cell carcinoma who underwent surgical excision and analyzed the recurrence rate, clinical features, surgical procedures, and histopathological subtypes.
RESULTS
The case series comprised 138 patients (M:F=1:1.51) with a mean age of 68.7 years. Recurrence after surgical excision was diagnosed in 0 of the 138 patients with a mean follow-up period of 47.5 months (12~93 months). The mean tumor diameter and surgical margin were 0.9 cm and 3.1 mm, respectively. Most tumors (85.5%) were of the nodular subtype. Primary closure was used most often to repair the surgical defects (44.9%).
CONCLUSION
Surgical excision may be a satisfactory method for the treatment of primary basal cell carcinomas, especially in non-high-risk cases.

Keyword

Basal cell carcinoma; Histological subtype; Recurrence rate; Surgical excision

MeSH Terms

Carcinoma, Basal Cell*
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Methods
Prognosis
Recurrence*
Retrospective Studies
Skin Neoplasms