What is wide surgical excision?

The goal of wide excision is to control local recurrence and lymph node metastases. MCC should be removed with clear margins as judged by pathology examination. As noted below however, even with margins >2 cm, surgery alone has a very high recurrence rate up to 42% depending on the study. This recurrence rate can typically be cut in half or better by the addition of radiation therapy.

To optimize the appearance of your scar, your surgeon may make the shape of the excision in the shape of a football (ellipse). Thus, the length of your scar will be roughly three times the size of the MCC.

Depending on your general health and the location of the MCC, surgery may not be possible. In that case, radiation therapy may be used alone. A recent study suggests that radiation therapy alone may be as effective as both radiation therapy and surgery.

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