Basal Cell Carcinoma of the Dorsal Foot: An Update and Comprehensive Review of the Literature

Management of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer: Radiologists Challenging and Risk Assessment

Basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and Merkel cell carcinoma are the three main types of nonmelanoma skin cancers and their rates of occurrence and mortality have been steadily rising over the past few decades. For radiologists, it is still difficult to treat patients with advanced nonmelanoma skin cancer. Nonmelanoma skin cancer patients would benefit greatly from an improved diagnostic imaging-based risk stratification and staging method that takes into account patient characteristics. The risk is especially elevated among those who previously received systemic treatment or phototherapy. Systemic treatments, including biologic therapies and methotrexate (MTX), are effective in managing immune-mediated diseases; however, they may increase susceptibility to NMSC due to immunosuppression or other factors. Risk stratification and staging tools are crucial in treatment planning and prognostic evaluation. PET/CT appears more sensitive and superior to CT and MRI for nodal and distant metastasis as well as in surveillance after surgery. The patient treatment response improved with advent and utilization of immunotherapy and different immune-specific criteria are established to standardized evaluation criteria of clinical trials but none of them have been utilized routinely with immunotherapy. The advent of immunotherapy has also arisen new critical issues for radiologists, such as atypical response pattern, pseudo-progression, as well as immune-related adverse events that require early identification to optimize and improve patient prognosis and management. It is important for radiologists to have knowledge of the radiologic features site of the tumor, clinical stage, histological subtype, and any high-risk features to assess immunotherapy treatment response and immune-related adverse events.

Basal Cell Carcinoma of the External Genitalia: A Population-Based Analysis

Introduction

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) located on the genitalia is rare; data on the clinicopathologic features and survival outcomes are only available through case reports and small case series studies.

Purpose

This study aimed to explore the epidemiology and identify the prognostic factors of genital BCCs.

Methods

We queried the 18 registries of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database for patients with primary BCCs of the genital skin from 2000 through 2017. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS) and disease specific survival (DSS). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was conducted to assess the impact of clinicopathological variables on OS and DSS. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was performed to evaluate risk factors for OS.

Results

A total of 1,607 cases of genital BCCs were identified. The cohort was composed of 1,352 women (84.1%) and 255 men (15.9%). The median (P25, P75) age of the entire cohort was 73(63–82)years. White patients accounted for 87.2% of the cases. For women and men, the most common site of involvement was the labia majora (89.6%) and scrotum (74.5%), respectively. The majority of patients with genital BCC had localized disease (75.5%). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that female genital BCCs experienced better DSS than men (209.1 months vs 194.8 months); for men, BCCs located on the scrotum had better DSS and OS than those on the penis (P < 0.05 for both endpoints). All patients with distant disease died of disease-specific death, and the average survival time was 8.2 months. Multivariate analysis revealed that age, primary site, and stage were independent determinants of OS for men, while tumor size, histologic subtype, and race were not. For women, factors associated with worse OS included increasing age, tumor size more than 2 cm, and distant disease; factors associated with a decreased risk included “other” and “unknown” races.

Conclusion

The prognosis of genital BCCs is excellent, while the survival of distant disease is very poor. Despite similar clinicopathologic features and overall survival outcomes, men and women should be treated as two different entities when making survival predictions.

Malignant tumours of the foot and ankle

Tumours of the foot and ankle constitute about 4-5% of all musculoskeletal tumours with the majority of them being benign. Diagnosis of malignant soft tissue or bone tumours is frequently delayed because of the relatively low prevalence and uncommon presentation at the foot and ankle. Suspicious lesions or lumps should be subjected to CT, MRI and biopsy. Subfascial location, lump size more than 5 cm, increase in size, painful and recurrent tumours should raise the suspicion of malignancy and lead to patient referral to a designated tumour centre. Neoadjuvant and adjuvant systemic chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, isolated limb perfusion (ILP) and hyperthermia for malignant tumours have to be discussed in a multidisciplinary tumour board. With the advances in local and free tissue transfer, limb-sparing techniques have increasingly replaced primary amputations thus preserving lower limb function as much as possible without compromising on the principles of oncologic resection.