Smaller Surgical Margins Safe For Many Skin Cancer Patients
Many skin cancer patients fare just as well when surgeons remove about one inch of normal-looking tissue around the lesion instead of a larger safety margin, according to a new systematic review.
Cutaneous melanoma arises in pigment-producing cells and is associated with sun exposure, so primary tumors are often on the face and hands where patients have special concerns about unsightly scars.
The purpose of the safety margin is to remove both the primary tumor and any malignant cells that might have spread into the surrounding skin. Combined data from five studies suggested a slight benefit to wider surgical margins, but the difference was not statistically significant, the review says.
“The most important consideration is to make sure that [the lesion] is removed with as much certainty as possible,” write authors led by Michael Sladden, M.D., of the University of Tasmania in Australia. “However, quality of life after surgery is an important consideration and unnecessary disfigurement should be avoided.” Read more
Possible Link Between Inflammatory Bowel Disease Treatment And Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer
Findings from a new retrospective cohort study presented at the American College of Gastroenterology’s 74th Annual Scientific meeting in San Diego indicate that patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), especially those receiving the thiopurine class of medications to treat IBD, may be at risk for developing non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC).
Dr. Millie Long, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her colleagues examined the records of 26,403 patients with Crohn’s disease and 26,974 patients with ulcerative colitis, dating from 1996 through 2005. The researchers investigated whether IBD could be associated with a higher risk of NMSC and whether the risk of NMSC increased as a result of immunosuppressive and biologic medications.
Each IBD patient in the cohort study was matched according to age, gender and region of the country with three randomly selected control patient records who did not have Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. In addition, in a nested case-control study, 387 patients with Crohn’s disease and NMSC and 355 patients with ulcerative colitis and NMSC were matched on age, gender and region of the country with four random control patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis who did not have NMSC to evaluate the impact of immunosuppressive and biologic medications on NMSC risk. Read more