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

Background: Intralesional interferon has shown activity in the treatment of noduloulcerative and superficial basal cell carcinomas (BCC).

Objective: Our purpose was to study the efficacy of intralesional interferon in the treatment of aggressive BCCs.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusion: At the dosage used, interferon was able to cure only a minority of aggressive BCCs.