Treatment of aggressive basal cell carcinoma with intralesional interferon: evaluation of efficacy by Mohs surgery.

Abstract

Intralesional interferon has shown activity in the treatment of noduloulcerative and superficial basal cell carcinomas (BCC). Our purpose was to study the efficacy of intralesional interferon in the treatment of aggressive BCCs. Fifteen patients with histologically proven primary morpheaform or recurrent BCCs were referred for Mohs surgery. They received nine intralesional injections of 1.5 million IU of interferon alfa-2b three times a week for 3 weeks (total dose 13.5 million IU). All tumors were located on the face and measured 7 to 25 mm in diameter. In four patients (27%) no residual tumor was found at surgery. In five (33%) tumor size was reduced by 75%. The remaining six patients (40%) showed no response to intralesional interferon. At the dosage used, interferon was able to cure only a minority of aggressive BCCs.