TITLE:
Treatment Patterns and Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Advanced Basal Cell Carcinoma in the Community Oncology Setting
AUTHORS:
Mark S. Walker, Lee S. Schwartzberg, Diana M. Chen, D. Devi Ramanan, Arthur C. Houts, Carolina Reyes
KEYWORDS:
Advanced Basal Cell Carcinoma; Community Oncology; Treatment Patterns; Observational Study; Long Term Follow Up
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
Vol.4 No.6A,
July
4,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Advanced basal cell carcinoma (aBCC) includes metastatic and locally advanced BCC that is inoperable (or with surgery contraindicated). We describe patient characteristics and treatment history for aBCC cases from community oncology. Nine cases of aBCC were found within the ACORN Data Warehouse, a community oncology database of >180,000 cancer patients. Data were summarized descriptively. Three illustrative case histories are presented. Patients were predominantly Caucasian (8/9), male (6/9), and over 60 (6/9). Four had metastatic disease; five had aBCC without metastasis. Five had a history of treatment for early stage BCC, including surgery (5/5), radiation (1/5), and none had chemotherapy. Those with history of early stage BCC had periods of apparent lack of follow-up and treatment. One had chemotherapy for aBCC (platinum based with radiation) and eight had radiation without chemotherapy. Patients had multiple comorbid serious medical conditions. Six were deceased, but only one was documented to have aBCC as cause of death. Advanced BCC is rare in community oncology settings. There appear to be gaps in the care and follow-up of patients with initial early stage BCC. More data and larger samples are needed from multi-specialty databases such as dermatology and head and neck surgery.