Immunotherapy in Basal Cell Carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most frequent of all cancers, with an increasing incidence. The first line therapy is surgical excision, but topical therapies can be used in low-risk superficial BCCs, while the more advanced, unresectable, or metastatic BCCs benefit from systemic therapies with he...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical medicine 2024-09, Vol.13 (19), p.5730
Main Authors: Ungureanu, Loredana, Vasilovici, Alina Florentina, Halmágyi, Salomea-Ruth, Trufin, Ioana Irina, Apostu, Adina Patricia, Prisecaru, Manuela, Șenilă, Simona Corina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Apoptosis
Basal cell carcinoma
Cancer therapies
Care and treatment
Cell death
Cytotoxicity
Environmental risk
Extracellular matrix
Iatrogenesis
Immunotherapy
Lymphocytes
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Physiological aspects
Proteins
Radiation therapy
Review
Risk factors
Tumors
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Summary:Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most frequent of all cancers, with an increasing incidence. The first line therapy is surgical excision, but topical therapies can be used in low-risk superficial BCCs, while the more advanced, unresectable, or metastatic BCCs benefit from systemic therapies with hedgehog inhibitors and immunotherapy. The purpose of this review is to highlight local and systemic immunotherapies and their efficacy in the management of BCCs. Local therapies can be considered in superficial and low-risk nodular BCCs, with imiquimod frequently used for its antitumor and immunoregulatory properties. Imiquimod alone demonstrated higher histological clearance rates, but patients treated with imiquimod experienced more adverse events than ones treated with other therapies. Imiquimod can be used as an adjuvant before Mohs micrographic surgery and can also be combined with other local therapies, like curettage, electrodesiccation, cryosurgery, and photodynamic therapy, with some treatment methods yielding results comparable with the surgery. Interferons and Interleukin-2 were evaluated in a small number of studies with different results. Systemic immunotherapies with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors showed inconsistent results in patients with advanced BCCs, being effective in some patients that progressed on or were intolerant to hedgehog pathway inhibitors (HHI).
ISSN:2077-0383
2077-0383
DOI:10.3390/jcm13195730