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Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 23, No 4 (February 1), 2005: pp. 759-765 © 2005 American Society of Clinical Oncology. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2005.02.155 Mortality Risk From Squamous Cell Skin CancerFrom the Departments of Head and Neck Surgery, Biostatistics and Applied Mathematics, Dermatology, Pathology, Epidemiology, Immunology, Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, and Clinical Cancer Prevention, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX Address reprint requests to Gary L. Clayman, MD, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Unit 441, Houston, TX 77030-4009; e-mail: gclayman{at}mdanderson.org
PURPOSE: To identify nonmelanoma skin cancer patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) who are at greatest risk of disease-specific mortality. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Prospectively enrolled patients with a minimum of one pathologically confirmed skin SCC lesion, definitive treatment of the SCC lesion(s) resulting in no evidence of disease, and at least 2 months of follow-up after definitive treatment were eligible for the present longitudinal analysis. They received comprehensive clinical, pathologic evaluations and follow-up for patterns of failure and mortality.
RESULTS: We enrolled 210 patients (187 men and 23 women) with a total of 277 skin SCC lesions and a median enrollment age of 68 years (range, 34 to 95 years). Median follow-up of surviving patients was 22 months. Three-year overall and disease-specific survival (DSS) rates were 70% and 85%, respectively. In univariate analyses, the clinical-pathologic factors associated with adverse DSS were local recurrence at presentation (P = .05), invasion beyond subcutaneous tissues (P = .009), perineural invasion (P = .002), lesion size (P = .0003), and depth of invasion (P = .05). Statistical models identified a homogeneous high-risk group of patients with lesions
CONCLUSION: Lesion size
Nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is the most common cancer in the United States, accounting for more than one million new cases annually.1 Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) constitute nearly all NMSC, and the incidence of these tumors continues to increase.2 At least 75% of NMSC arises in the head and neck. Most NMSC cases are controlled successfully by complete excision, although they are associated with a lifelong risk for developing second primary skin cancers that can require repeated surgical resections and reconstructive procedures.3 Although rarely fatal, NMSC has tremendous adverse public health effects of high medical costs and, in advanced or aggressive cases, diminished quality of life from devastating aesthetic and psychosocial sequelae, functional impairment, and other serious consequences.4,5 Fortunately, only a small percentage of primary NMSCs, mostly SCCs, are refractory to standard dermatologic therapy.6-8 Compared with skin BCCs, skin SCCs not only are more likely to metastasize but also to cause mortality. Although the case-fatality rate is only approximately 1%, the national NMSC mortality figures equal or exceed those for melanoma, which is far more lethal but less common.9,10 The present prospective study of skin SCC was designed to determine whether certain clinical-pathologic features of skin SCC are associated with an increased risk of disease-specific mortality, as suggested by previous data.6
We enrolled skin SCC patients consecutively and prospectively at a single institution (The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center). All patients treated at M.D. Anderson for SCC of the skin of the head and neck or other sites are entered (after giving their consent) into the institution's Non-Melanoma Skin Tumor Registry, from which our patients were identified. The eligibility criteria were a minimum of one pathologically confirmed skin SCC lesion at presentation, definitive treatment of the SCC lesion(s) resulting in no evidence of disease (NED), and a minimum of 2 months of follow-up after definitive treatment. Patients were enrolled onto the study only after providing informed written consent. All skin SCC patients at M.D. Anderson were potentially eligible for our analysis; in other words, none were excluded for any reason related to the specific nature of the SCC (eg, nodal involvement).
Study Design
End Point Evaluation
Statistical Analysis
The times to recurrence, death, and disease-specific death were defined as the times from NED to these various events. The survival probabilities for time-to-event end points were estimated via the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to assess patients' prognostic factors for disease-specific survival (DSS). DSS was defined as the time to cancer-related death, including from relapse or new skin primary cancers. Patients who were still alive were censored at the time of the last follow-up regardless of the disease status. Predictive variables were then selected via forward stepwise selection with a P value cutoff of Statistical analysis was performed with SAS 8.0 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) and S-plus 2000 (Version 3.3, Statistical Sciences, Seattle, WA) software. All tests of statistical significance were performed using a two-sided 5% type-I error rate.
Patient Characteristics/Demographics Between July 1996 and June 2001, 260 patients at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center were diagnosed with SCC of the skin and entered into the Non-Melanoma Skin Tumor Registry. Twenty-four of these patients were ineligible for our study because they had in situ disease or did not have definitive therapy, and 26 patients were ineligible because they did not have adequate follow-up data (a minimum of 2 months). This left 210 patients with at least one SCC lesion at presentation, definitive treatment resulting in NED, and a minimum of 2 months of follow-up who were eligible and consecutively enrolled onto the present prospective, longitudinal study (Table 1). The median enrollment age was 68 years old (range, 34 to 94 years). There were 187 men, 23 women, five Hispanic American patients, and 205 white patients. To date, 52 study patients have died. The median follow-up of the 158 surviving patients after enrollment has been 22 months (range, 2 to 72 months).
All 210 patients had pathologically confirmed NMSC at presentation. Among them, 80 patients (38%) came to M.D. Anderson for treatment after referral for local or regional skin SCC recurrences (SPTs were not recorded for these patients). Sixty-seven patients (32%) reported having had previous skin lesions, and 63 patients (30%) presented with primary skin SCC. Regarding patients who were referred for or who self-reported previous skin lesions, we obtained pathologic confirmation of previous-lesion SCC histology for 35 of the 80 referred patients and two of the 67 self-reporting patients. Age was correlated significantly with the diagnosis of any previous NMSC (P = .004).
Lesion Characteristics at Presentation Eighty-seven percent (240 of 277) of the reported lesions occurred in the head and neck. Twenty percent of the head and neck skin lesions (49 of 240) occurred in the forehead, 19% (46 of 240) occurred in the face, 18% (42 of 240) occurred in the auricle, and 17% (40 of 240) occurred in the cheek. Twenty-five referred head and neck patients had delayed regional lymphatic recurrences of previously treated SCC lesions. Seventeen of these 25 patients had a history of multiple skin head and neck SCC lesions, and no primary site could be specified. Eight other patients with SCC of the midface skin presented with regional lymphatic failure. Clinical and/or pathologic estimates of size (greatest diameter) were available for 257 of the total 277 skin SCC lesions. Overall, the median size of a lesion at study diagnosis was 2.0 cm (range, 0.2 to 17.0 cm). Locally recurrent lesions were significantly larger (median, 2.4 cm; range, 0.3 to 10.0 cm) than were nonrecurrent (de novo) lesions (median, 1.5 cm; range, 0.2 to 17 cm; P < .0001, Wilcoxon test).
Histopathologic Features Of the 277 total skin SCC lesions, 39 (14%) involved perineural invasion, 29 (10.5%) involved lymphatic or vascular invasion, and 43 (15.5%) had deep invasion beyond subcutaneous tissues. The rates of perineural, lymphatic or vascular, and deep invasion beyond subcutaneous tissues in recurrent versus nonrecurrent lesions were 24% v 10% (P = .002; perineural), 17% v 8% (P = .022; lymphatic or vascular), and 30% v 10% (P < .0001; invasion beyond subcutaneous tissues). Increment of size was correlated directly with the incidence of perineural invasion (P = .002) and lymphatic or vascular invasion (P < .001) in nonrecurrent SCC lesions. There was no detectable size-invasion association in locally or regionally recurrent lesions.
Deep Invasion Beyond Subcutaneous Tissues
Treatment
Study Outcomes Survival was computed as the time between enrollment and either death or last follow-up. Three-year overall survival was 70% (95% CI, 62% to 79%; Fig 1A). Fifty-two patients were known to have died, 21 patients from skin SCC and 31 patients from other causes. The DSS analysis censored patients at the time of death if the cause of death was not skin cancer or at the time of last follow-up for patients still alive at that time. Three-year DSS was 85% (95% CI, 78% to 92%; Fig 1B). The 3-year estimates are derived from the complete follow-up on the 52 deceased patients and a median follow-up of 22 months in the 158 patients still alive at the time of our analysis. The use of 3-year estimates was justified by the reasonably tight range of the 95% CI estimations.
Recurrence After skin SCC treatment, 44 recurrent lesions (22 local, eight regional, and 14 distant recurrences) occurred in 37 patients during the study period. Twenty-two of these patients were among the 80 patients who had prior recurrences, and 15 patients were among the 130 patients who had no prior recurrences (on-study recurrence rates were 27.5% v 11.5% in patients with and without prior recurrences, respectively; P = .003). Nine of the 22 patients with prior recurrences had received prior radiotherapy. Thirteen patients had distant/dermal metastases (11 patients had metastases only, one patient had metastasis and local recurrence, and one patient had metastasis and regional recurrence); 10 patients developed regional recurrences (eight patients had regional recurrences only, and two patients had regional and local recurrences); and 14 patients had local recurrences only. Fourteen of the 37 patients who experienced recurrence also developed second primary tumors. The Kaplan-Meier estimate showed that 80% (95% CI, 74% to 87%) of the study patients were free from recurrence at year 3 (Fig 1C).
Skin SPTs
Risk Factors Associated With DSS
Multiple covariate Cox models were constructed to determine which factors could independently affect DSS. Various models were compared by the likelihood ratio test. The best subset Cox model with two factors contained lesion size ( 4 cm v < 4 cm) with a hazard ratio of 4.5 (95% CI, 1.8 to 11.1; P = .002) and perineural invasion with a hazard ratio of 2.8 (95% CI, 1.2 to 6.6; P = .021). The associations among multiple prognostic factors were assessed via the log-linear model. Several significant two-way interactions were found: invasion beyond subcutaneous tissues was associated with the depth of invasion; lesion size was associated with recurrence (at the time of presentation) and depth of invasion; lymphatic/vascular invasion was associated with perineural invasion and lymph node involvement. No significant association was found between lesion size greater than 4 cm and perineural invasion. These factors, however, remain independent risk factors for DSS in the Cox model analysis. A similar model was also identified by the recursive partitioning method. Lesion size (with a cutoff of 4 cm) was chosen as the first factor separating the high- and low-risk groups. In patients with lesions less than 4 cm, perineural invasion and deep invasion beyond subcutaneous tissues were subsequently chosen to further classify patients into various risk groups. Patients without these criteria and with lesions less than 4 cm in size had the lowest risk with respect to DSS (Fig 2). In fact, none of these patients died of disease, with the follow-up time up to 72 months. On the other hand, the 3-year DSS was 70% (95% CI, 59% to 83%) for patients who presented with at least one of the three risk factors. A clear separation of the DSS curves can be found in Figure 2. Importantly, delay in diagnosis or treatment was not significantly different between either of the two groups.
The present study prospectively evaluated features of skin SCC that can predict aggressive disease behavior and poor clinical outcome. Lesion size 4 cm and histologic evidence of perineural and deep invasion into underlying tissues were the clinical-pathologic factors associated most significantly with diminished DSS. There was a trend toward lower DSS in association with regional metastases that failed to reach statistical significance, possibly because of the low percentage and intensive management (eg, comprehensive dissection) of patients with nodal involvement and because only one node was involved in a majority of this small group of patients (Table 3). With a longer median follow-up (48 months) and larger number of patients with nodal metastasis (n = 74), a recent retrospective study in Australia11 (which has the highest incidence of skin SCC in the world) of advanced skin SCC patients treated with curative intent found a high recurrence rate (34%) and poor 5-year DSS (61%) in association with nodal involvement. This study also found that more intensively treated patients had better recurrence and DSS rates. All study patients came from a tertiary cancer center, which accounts for the much higher percentage of advanced or aggressive skin SCCs than generally would be seen in a community practice. Nonetheless, advanced cases do occur in the community, albeit less frequently, and so community practices can benefit from the findings we report here. We also assessed clinical factors (eg, sex and site of skin lesion), which were not significant predictors of DSS (data not shown). Although disease-specific mortality is an important concern for advanced skin SCC patients, our study demonstrates that morbidity is equally, if not more, important, at least in the short term (our median analysis was < 2 years). DSS was 85%, compared with a 70% overall survival. The morbidity rate from disease requiring major reconstruction, either soft tissue alone (such as pedicled flap and free flap) or craniofacial reconstruction, was 29%. A striking 38% (79 of 210) of patients developed 221 new skin lesions after enrollment, 80% of which were SPTs. We believe that the morbidity and economic and health care utilization costs of skin SCC are largely underestimated and that the opportunities for preventive intervention strategies are great. A multidisciplinary team of otolaryngologists, head and neck surgeons, Mohs micrographic surgeons, and dermatologists, plastic surgeons, general surgeons, medical oncologists, and radiation therapists enrolled patients onto this study. Notwithstanding this multidisciplinary breadth, 87% of the baseline skin SCCs in our study occurred in the head and neck region, reflecting the high incidence of NMSC in sun-exposed areas.12 This percentage of skin SCCs that occurred in the head and neck is higher than that reported in retrospective reviews.3,13 Our present results from prospective analyses of several prognostic factors in a wide range of skin SCC patients are unique in the literature. Previous studies have involved either early-stage patients with virtually 100% cure rates14 or advanced-disease patients usually assessed retrospectively for only one prognostic factor (eg, perineural invasion15 or nodal involvement11). This report also presents the first prospective study of the incidence and outcome of skin SCC patients in the southern latitudes of the United States. Although the incidence of skin SCC doubles every 8 to 10 degrees of declining latitude,16 most large skin cancer studies in the United States have been in the northerly latitudes of Minnesota,17 New York,18 and the Pacific Northwest.3 Therefore, the data reported here may differ from previously reported data because of population- and geography-based differences in NMSC, particularly skin SCC. Our ongoing study and future plans in this setting include long-term follow-up of the present study's population to extend the relatively short-term findings of this report and further define the factors that best predict poor clinical outcomes. We plan to analyze the molecular characteristics of the aggressive skin SCC defined in this report, and this analysis may result in novel biologic therapies that can reduce skin SCC treatment- and disease-related morbidity and mortality. Further study of and advances in risk assessment, surveillance, and prevention will be critical for controlling the substantial threat of skin SCC to the public health.
The authors indicated no potential conflicts of interest.
We sincerely thank our patients for providing the foundation of our analysis; our entire interdisciplinary skin cancer team, especially Shirley Taylor, Maride Uy, and Nicole Sieffert for their collaborative efforts; and Michael S. Worley for critically reviewing this manuscript.
Supported in part by National Cancer Institute grant No. P01-5P01CA68233 (G.L.C.), grant No. CA97007, and Cancer Center Support Grant No. 5P30 CA16672. G.L.C., J.J.L., and F.C.H. contributed equally to this work. Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest are found at the end of this article.
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Copyright © 2005 by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Online ISSN: 1527-7755. Print ISSN: 0732-183X
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