Basal cell carcinoma of the nasal pyramid excision margins: a retrospective study

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most frequent skin cancer and its location in the nasal pyramid poses treatment problems. The main issue is how large the resection margins should be. The article presents a retrospective study on patients with BCCs of the nose. Thirty-seven patients were included and the correlations between incomplete resections and tumor dimensions, resection margins or histological sub-type were investigated. Of the 37 patients, only five had tumor-positive excision margins, but no correlation with the above-mentioned factors could be found. An overall tendency to over-resection was detected, contrary to the tendency depicted in the literature, but the incomplete resection rate (13.5%) is comparable with other reports. Further studies are needed, on a larger population in order to generate guidelines to better medical practice on this matter.