ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Surgical Oncology
Correlation Analysis Between Surgical Margin Status and Recurrence of Basal Cell Carcinoma in High-Risk Anatomical Locations
Provisionally accepted
- 1Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China
- 2Shijiazhuang People's Hospital, Shijiazhuang, China
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Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) represents the most common cutaneous malignancy, with tumors located in high-risk anatomical regions presenting significant challenges due to elevated recurrence rates and functional constraints. This retrospective cohort study investigated the relationship between surgical margin status and tumor recurrence in patients with BCC at high-risk sites. We analyzed clinical and pathological data from patients who underwent surgical excision, focusing on margin status classification, margin distance measurements, and recurrence outcomes during follow-up periods. Univariate analyses examined associations between margin status and various clinicopathological features, while multivariate Cox regression identified independent prognostic factors for recurrence. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis compared recurrence-free survival between margin-negative and margin-positive groups. Our findings demonstrated that positive surgical margins significantly increased recurrence risk in high-risk anatomical locations. Margin distance showed a dose-response relationship with recurrence probability, with specific threshold values correlating with optimal oncological outcomes. Histological subtypes and tumor size also influenced the relationship between margin status and recurrence. These results emphasize the critical importance of achieving adequate surgical margins during BCC excision at high-risk sites and provide evidence-based guidance for determining appropriate margin distances based on anatomical location and tumor characteristics.
Keywords: basal cell carcinoma, high-risk anatomical sites, margin status, Surgical margins, tumor recurrence
Received: 01 Jan 2026; Accepted: 28 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wei, Zhao, Guo, Wang, Zhang, Bai, Li and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanling Li
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