Abstract

A retrospective chart review of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) cases with a biopsy-confirmed diagnosis, limited to the neck, trunk and extremities, with subsequent standard excision, was performed. The data collected from medical records from October 2016 to December 2019 included age, sex, tumor location, tumor size, histopathological subtype, time between biopsy and excision and patient immune status. A total of 838 cases were identified and divided into three categories; nodular/nodular combination (672), superficial (59) and high risk (107). High risk group included infiltrating, morphea, metatypical and micronodular types of BCC. Results indicated that 48.57% of total cases had no residual tumor in the excision specimen, and thus were cleared by biopsy. Excisions of nodular/nodular combination, superficial, and high risk subtypes had no residual tumor in 51.34%, 27.12%, and 42.99% of specimens, respectively. Superficial subtypes had a longer wait time (62 days) in contrast to the high risk (51 days) and nodular/nodular combination (44 days) subtypes. Average tumor size was 10.26mm in nodular/nodular combination, 10.99mm in superficial, and 12.41mm in high risk tumors. Smaller tumors (?10mm) had more excisions with no residual tumor (59%) in comparison to larger tumors (?11mm), which had 33.23% biopsy tumor clearance. Tumors measuring ?5mm, 6-10mm, 11-20mm, and ?21mm were cleared by biopsy 70.94%, 54.87%, 36.40%, and 14.58% of the time, respectively. Immunocompetent patients were cleared 46.62% of the time and immunocompromised patients were cleared 51.35% of the time. BCC subtypes, tumor size and wait time appear to be predicting factors of tumor clearance.

Financial Disclosure:
No current or relevant financial relationships exist.