Clinical Characteristics of Local Recurrent Basal Cell Carcinoma After Surgical Excision: A Retrospective Study of the Patients From a Tertiary Clinical Center

Background: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most frequent form of skin cancer. The etiology of recurrent BCC is multifactorial, and the recurrence rate is variable. Objective: The aim of the study was to identify the risk factors of local recurrence after surgical excision in primary BCC. Materials and methods: In our study, 934 patients histopathological diagnosed with BCCs between January 2017 and June 2022 were evaluated retrospectively. Among these, patients who were regularly followed up for at least three years were included in the study. Patients who underwent non-excision treatment were excluded. All the patients who had pathologically confirmed, surgically excised BCCs with safety margins and those with a clinicopathological diagnosis of recurrent BCCs. Demographic and clinical features of 78 patients with non-recurrent primary BCC and 55 patients with local recurrent BCC were compared. Results: The mean age was 69.7 +/- 11.7 years. The gender distribution was M/F:1.3. The time from diagnosis to total surgical excision was 2.3 +/- 1.4 months, and the time of recurrence was 27.5 +/- 23.3 months. The age of the patients, the time from diagnosis to total excision, the lesion size > 2 cm, and the presence of risk factors (such as radiotherapy, malignancy, and immunosuppression) were higher in the recurrent group than in the non-recurrent group (p < 0.05). Location (high/medium/low-risk area) and the presence of multiple lesions did not differ significantly between the recurrent and non-recurrent groups. Conclusion: In patients with BCC, recurrence is often detected in the first three years after diagnosis. Our study determined age, lesion size, accompanying risk factors, and the length of time until total excision as risk factors for recurrence in BCC patients. The histological subtype and lesion localization did not differ between the group with and without recurrence.