Relapses and recurrences of basal cell face carcinomas

Abstracts

Para avaliar fatores relacionados ao seguimento oncológico dos carcinomas basocelulares da face, foi realizada a análise de série de casos. Avaliaram-se 465 pacientes, com 834 carcinomas basocelulares de face; 3,1% apresentaram recidivas. Nos tumores incompletamente excisados, a recidiva foi 14,7% contra 2,3% dos tumores, com margens livres. Ocorreram mais na região nasal. As taxas de recorrência evidenciaram risco cumulativo. Estes achados reforçam a importância do seguimento oncológico após a cirurgia do carcinoma basocelular.

Carcinoma basocelular; Cirurgia geral; Neoplasias cutâneas; Patologia; Recidiva local de neoplasia

COMUNICATION

Relapses and recurrences of basal cell face carcinomas^*

Juliana Polizel Ocanha^I; Juliana Tedesco Dias^I; Hélio Amante Miot^II; Hamilton Ometto Stolf^II; Mariângela Esther Alencar Marques^III; Luciana Patricia Fernandes Abbade^II

^IStudent of the sixth year of graduation of the Faculty of Medicine of Botucatu from the State University of São Paulo (UNESP) - Botucatu (SP) Brazil

^IIDoctor (a) - Professor (a) Assistant Doctor (a). Department of Dermatology of the Faculty of Medicine of Botucatu from the State University of São Paulo (UNESP) - Botucatu (SP) Brazil

^IIIAssociate professor - Assistant professor. Department of Pathology of the Faculty of Medicine of Botucatu from the State University of São Paulo (UNESP) - Botucatu (SP) Brazil

Mailing address

ABSTRACT

To evaluate factors related to oncological follow-up of basal cell face carcinomas it was carried out the analysis of a series of cases. Four hundred sixty-five patients with 834 basal cell face carcinomas were evaluated; 3,1% presented recurrences. There was 14.7% of recurrence in incompletely excised tumors against 2.3% of the tumors with clear margins. Recurrences were more prevalent on the nose. Relapse rates showed a cumulative risk. These findings reinforce the importance of oncological follow-up after surgery of basal cell carcinoma.

Keywords: Carcinoma, basal cell; General surgery; Neoplasm recurrence, local; Pathology; skin neoplasms

Recurrences and relapses of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) are problems in the monotoring of patients.^1,2 To evaluate this aspect, it was carried out the analysis of a serie of cases of patients with facial BCCs. Clinical, demographic and histopathological variables were obtained from patients charts. There was a bivariate comparisson of categorical data by G test (Willians) and residue analysis. Later, the variables were adjusted by a multiple logistic regression model. It was considered significant value p<0,05, bicaudal.

All patients coming from the University Hospital of FMB-Unesp with diagnosis of facial BCC confirmed pathologically and within the period from 1995 to 2005 were included in the present work.

The study evaluated 465 pacients with 834 face BCCs, 727 of them were monitored (87,2%), with an average time of 33,2 months.

Patients general data are displayed on Table 1, showing female prevalence and emergence of the first BCC between 38 and 84 years of age (95% of cases). There was recurrence of 25 tumors (3,1%) and the characteristics related to the surgical margins are shown in table 2, being significant the association between the onset of the lateral margin by the tumor (p<0,01) as well as lateral and deep (p<0,01). When considering all the 34 tumors with positive margins (lateral and/or deep), the recurrence rate was 14,7% (IC 95% 2,4% a 27,1%) (p<0,01). The average length of time up to recurrence was 2,4 years, varying from two months to six years (Table 1). Recurrences occured more frequently on the risk area of the face (Table 2). There was significant proportion on the nasal area (p<0,05) and absence of recurrences on the malar/zygomatic region. There was no significant difference between recurrence and the histology of BCC in this sample (Table 2). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that margin impairment was significantly associated with the risk of recurrence, regardless of histological type and topography (p<0,05).

The risk of having multiple tumors was cumulatively higher (Table 1) as new lesions appeared. 65,5% of the patients had a single lesion.

The recurrence rate was close to the recurrence rate of other works, where indices ranging from 1,3% to 3,8% ^3-5 were observed. Recurrence time occured within six years which reinforces the need for prolonged follow-up to avoid complications caused by the recurrence or from the need of a new wide excision. Other works also recommend long follow-up although there is no consensus on this topic.^3,6,7 Besides that, subsequent annual follow-up favors the detection of new BCCs in less advanced stages.

In recurrences, the second lesion occurs in an area of up to 1 centimeter of the primary lesion, which reflects the difficulty of differenciating from an"again" lesion" in the photoexposed neighborhood.⁴

Lesions completely excised corresponded to 4,2% of the total number of tumors, value comparable to values found in the medical literature and which vary from 4% to 16,6%.^5,8,9 In these tumors, there were 14,7% of recurrences and 15,4% in the tumors with tiny margin (less than 1 mm) against 2,3% of the tumors with free margins. This information shows the importance of the follow-up and the relevance of pathology as for prognosis.

In some cases, the recurrence rate in tumors with positive margins varies from 19,8 to 67%^4,5,8.In theses cases, some specialists recommend immediate surgical rapprochement which is still subject of discus^4,5,8. It was observed that most of the lesions with positive margins did not recur and that, many times, these lesions occured in areas of difficult rapprochement. Even lesions with free margins may recur but this does not occur in the majority of the cases and reinforces the need for oncological follow-up.

Most recurrences occurred on the nasal and perilabial areas. Recurrences on the zygomatic-malar region were not found. The nasal region is likely to relapse,^8,10 probably due to the difficulty of obtaining adequate margins and also because of the anatomy of this region. On the other hand, the zygomatic region showed no recurrences which can be explained by the anatomic conformation that does not impose many obstacles to the initial surgical approach. There was no significant relationship between histological type and recurrence of tumor, which contradicts other studies¹⁰ that show that infiltrative and micronodular types are more associated with relapse. This might have occured due to the small number of tumors with such classifications in this study.

BCC recurrence rates showed a cumulative risk. The more lesions someone has had, the greater the probability of having a new tumor. These data reiterate the importance of oncological follow-up as well as the importance of health education, promoting photoprotection and self-examination

Finally, evaluated data refer to excised facial BCCs subjected to histopathological control and therefore it is not possible to extrapolate the conclusions to other therapies and other topographies.

REFERENCES

• 1. Graells J. The risk factors of a second non-melanoma skin cancer: a study in a Mediterranean population. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2004;18:142-7.
• 2. Mantese SAO, Berbert ALCV, Gomides MDA, Rocha A. Carcinoma basocelular - Análise de 300 casos observados em Uberlândia - MG. An Bras Dermatol. 2006;81:136-42.
• 3. Goh BK, Ang P, Wu YJ, Goh CL. Characteristics of basal cell carcinoma amongst Asians in Singapore and a comparison between completely and incompletely excised tumors. Int J Dermatol. 2006;45:561-4.
• 4. Griffiths RW, Suvarna SK, Stone J. Do basal cell carcinomas recur after complete conventional surgical excision? Br J Plast Surg. 2005;58:795-805.
• 5. Staub G, Revol M, May P, Bayol JC, Verola O, Servant JM. Excision skin margin and recurrence rate of skin cancer: a prospective study of 844 cases. Ann Chir Plast Esthet. 2008;53:389-98.
• 6. Preston DS, Stern RS. Nonmelanoma cancers of the skin. N Engl J Med. 1992;327:1649-62.
• 7. Robinson JK. Follow-up and prevention (basal cell carcinoma). In: Cutaneous Oncology. Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Management (Miller SJ, Maloney ME, eds). Malden: MA:Blackwell Science, 1998. p.695-8.
• 8. Farhi D, Dupin N, Palangié A, Carlotti A, Avril MF. Incomplete excision of basal cell carcinoma: rate and associated factors among 362 consecutive cases. Dermatol Surg. 2007;33:1207-14.
• 9. Rosso S, Zanetti R, Martinez C, Tormo MJ, Schraub S, Sancho-Garnier H, et al. The multicentre south European study 'Helios'. II: Different sun exposure patterns in the aetiology of basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas of the skin. Br J Cancer. 1996;73: 1447-54.
• 10. Silverman MK, Kopf AW, Grin CM, Bart RS, Levenstein MJ. Recurrence rates of treated basal cell carcinomas. Part 1: Overview. J Dermatol Surg Oncol. 1991;17:713-8.

*

Trabalho realizado no Departamento de Dermatologia e Radioterapia da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu da Universidade Estadual de São Paulo (UNESP) - Botucatu (SP), Brasil.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  16 May 2011
• Date of issue
  Apr 2011

History

• Received
  28 Oct 2009
• Accepted
  11 Mar 2010