Photodynamic therapy combined with surgery versus Mohs micrographic surgery for the treatment of difficult-to-treat basal cell carcinoma: a retrospective clinical study

• Main Authors: Nianzhou Yu (Author), Lisha Wu (Author), Juan Su (Author), Mingliang Chen (Author), Lixia Lu (Author), Kai Huang (Author), Yixin Li (Author), Zixi Jiang (Author), Siliang Liu (Author), Lanyuan Peng (Author), Yang Xie (Author), Zeyu Chen (Author), Wenhu Zhou (Author), Miaojian Wan (Author), Fang Fang (Author), WenBo Bu (Author), Shuang Zhao (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group, 2023-12-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 0954-6634; 1471-1753; 10.1080/09546634.2023.2200871
• Keywords: basal-cell carcinoma (bcc); photodynamic therapy (pdt); mohs micrographic surgery (mms); treatment outcome; Dermatology; RL1-803
• Source: Journal of Dermatological Treatment, Vol 34, Iss 1 (2023)

Background Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) is the preferable surgery for difficult -to-treat basal cell carcinoma (BCC) but is an expensive, labor-intensive, and time-consuming technique. The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy and safety of photodynamic therapy combined with surgery(S-PDT) versus Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) for the treatment of difficult-to-treat BCC. Methods This was a retrospective, comparative study. A total of 32 patients, 16 patients with 48 lesions, were treated with S-PDT, and the other 16 patients with 17 lesions treated by MMS were enrolled in this study. Follow-up was at least 36 months posttreatment. Results The recurrence rate was no statistical difference between the S-PDT and MMS (p = 1.000, Fishers exact test). The median follow-up was 42.5 months (range 36-63 months). The mean healing time in the S-PDT [17.9 d (SD 9.8)] is longer than in MMS [7.5 d (SD 1.5)] during follow-up (p＜.001, Independent T-test). On the whole, the cosmetic outcome of patients in S-PDT was statistically no significant difference with that in MMS according to a 4-point scale (p = .719, chi-squared test). Conclusions S-PDT is a safe, effective, and novel cosmetic treatment, which holds the potential to be an alternative treatment to MMS for some cases.