Clearance of basal cell and superficial squamous cell carcinomas after imiquimod therapy.

Summary

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Clinical report

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Extract

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Clearance of basal cell and superficial squamous cell carcinomas after imiquimod therapy.

Abstract

The short-term and long-term outcomes of 108 patients with 122 nodular basal cell carcinomas (BCCs), morpheaform BCCs, or low-risk squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) treated with imiquimod 5% cream at a community-based dermatology practice were retrospectively reviewed. The overall initial tumor clinical cure rate was 93.4% (114/122), with an initial clinical cure rate of 90% (72/80) for BCCs combined, and 100% (42/42) for SCCs combined. During a median follow-up time of 18 months, there was only 1 recurrence in the 114 tumors considered initially clinically cured. Imiquimod may be an appropriate initial treatment for these tumors in patients with good posttreatment follow-up.

Introduction

Imiquimod is a synthetic toll-like receptor 7 agonist with a low molecular weight(1) The activation of innate immune cells by imiquimod results in the induction of an array of cytokines including interferon-alpha (IFN-a), interleukins (ILs) 1,6, 8, and 12, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a).(2), (3) Originally approve...

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