Treatment of lower limb basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas with radiotherapy

In order to evaluate the role of photon based radiotherapy regimens in the treatment of lower limb basal cell and squamous carcinomas, a retrospective analysis of the results of X-ray treatment to 65 such lesions in 60 patients was made. The mean age was 73.3 years, with a range of between 46 and 93 years. Seventy-seven per cent (46/60) of the patients were female. The overall recurrence rate was 4.6% (3/65), and the radionecrosis rate was 9.2% (6/65), with no significant bias in terms of sex or laterality. For regimens giving an NSD of between 1700 rets and 1850 rets to a surface area of less than 30 cm2, the risk of treatment failure was less than 6%.