Morpheaform Basal Cell Carcinomas With Areas of Predominantly Single-Cell Pattern of Infiltration: Diagnostic Utility of p63 and Cytokeratin

Advanced and Metastatic Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer: Epidemiology, Risk Factors, Clinical Features, and Treatment Options

Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC) form the majority of skin cancers, with basal cell carcinoma (BCC) being the most common and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) being second. Prolonged ultraviolet (UV) exposure, aging, male gender, and immunosuppression represent most of the causes of this category of diseases. BCCs and cSCCs both include different types of skin cancers, such as nodular or morpheaform BCC or flat cSCC. Locally advanced and metastatic NMSCs cannot be treated surgically; thus, systemic therapy (TKI and Immunotherapy) is needed. Interestingly, NMSCs are frequently linked to abnormal Hedgehog (HH) signaling which most systemic immunotherapies for these cancers are based upon. Of note, the first line therapies of BCC, sonidegib and vismodegib, are HH inhibitors. Programmed death receptor 1 antibody (PD-1) inhibitors such as cemiplimab, pembrolizumab, and nivolumab have been approved for the treatment of cSCC. Thus, this paper reviews the epidemiology, risk factors, clinical features, and treatment options for both BCC and cSCC.

Histopathological Pattern of Head and Neck Recurrent BCC After Previous Cryotherapy

Surgical resection is the gold standard treatment for basal cell carcinomas, although there is literature supporting cryotherapy for low-risk cases. Our aim was to compare the histopathological aspects of recurrent postcryotherapy head and neck cutaneous BCC with de novo tumors, using a case-control study. 51 Recurrent postcryotherapy cases were selected between January 2017 and December 2021 and compared to 132 controls filtered from a consecutive series of de novo head and neck cutaneous BCC operated between January and December 2021. Aggressive variants, multifocality, invasion beyond adipose tissue and higher Clark levels were associated with recurrent cases on multivariate analysis. Previous cryotherapy treatment may have contributed to an increased risk of more aggressive recurrent disease and caution using this treatment modality is advised.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12070-023-03919-7.

Clinical and Molecular Features of Morpheaform Basal Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common skin cancer, with a lifetime risk currently approaching up to 40% in Caucasians. Among these, some clinical and pathological BCC variants pose a higher risk due to their more aggressive biological behavior. Morpheaform BCC (morBCC), also known as sclerosing, fibrosing, or morpheic BCC, represents up to 5-10% of all BCC. Overall, morBCC carries a poorer prognosis due to late presentation, local tissue destruction, tumor recurrence, and higher frequency of metastasis. In this systematic review, we review the epidemiological, clinical, morphological, dermatoscopical, and molecular features of morBCC. After the title and abstract screening of 222 studies and the full-text review of 84 studies, a total of 54 studies met the inclusion criteria and were thus included in this review.

Scirrhous carcinoma: A previously undescribed tumor of the oral cavity

This patient was found to have a scirrhous carcinoma with extensive perineural invasion and without any evidence of minor salivary gland carcinoma. To our knowledge, this is the first report of isolated scirrhous carcinoma of the oral cavity. Treatment was surgery and adjuvant chemoradiation, and there was complete disease response.

Technological Advances in Multiscale Analysis of Single Cells in Biomedicine

Single-cell analysis has recently received significant attention in biomedicine. With the advances in super-resolution microscopy, fluorescence labeling, and nanoscale biosensing, new information may be obtained for the design of cancer diagnosis and therapeutic interventions. The discovery of cellular heterogeneity further stresses the importance of single-cell analysis to improve our understanding of disease mechanism and to develop new strategies for disease treatment. To this end, many studies are exploited at the single-cell level for high throughput, highly parallel, and quantitative analysis. Technically, microfluidics are also designed to facilitate single-cell isolation and enrichment for downstream detection and manipulation in a robust, sensitive, and automated manner. Further achievements are made possible by consolidating optically label-free, electrical, and molecular sensing techniques. Moreover, these technologies are coupled with computing algorithms for high throughput and automated quantitative analysis with a short turnaround time. To reflect on how the technological developments have advanced single-cell analysis, this mini-review is aimed to offer readers an introduction to single-cell analysis with a brief historical development and the recent progresses that have enabled multiscale analysis of single-cells in the last decade. The challenges and future trends are also discussed with the view to inspire forthcoming technical developments.