For patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) of the scalp, margin status impacts disease-specific mortality but is not associated with the risk for local recurrence, according to a study published in the July issue of SKIN .

Rajith L. Mendis, M.B.B.S., from Westmead Hospital in Sydney, and colleagues examined the risk for recurrence among 114 patients with scalp cSCCs, with a median age of 70 years, who had a median follow-up of 5.6 years.

The researchers found that 46 percent of patients had clear margins after surgery and 52 percent had close (≤2 mm) or involved margins, yielding a significant difference in five-year disease-specific mortality of 20 and 35 percent, respectively. Overall, 25 percent of patients underwent surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy, most of whom had a close/involved margin. The risk for developing local recurrence was not significantly different for patients in whom a clear margin was obtained and for those in whom the margin was close/involved.

"Margin status had a significant impact on disease specific mortality, but did not appear to be associated with the risk of developing local recurrence," the authors write. "The addition of adjuvant radiotherapy in select high-risk patients may improve outcome although this was not demonstrated in our study."

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