10.1245/ASO.2006.07.022
Annals of Surgical Oncology 13:902-909 (2006)
© 2006 Society of Surgical Oncology
Invasive Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Skin: Defining a High-Risk Group
John T. Mullen, MD1,
Lei Feng, MS2,
Yan Xing, MD, MS1,
Paul F. Mansfield, MD1,
Jeffrey E. Gershenwald, MD1,
Jeffrey E. Lee, MD1,
Merrick I. Ross, MD1 and
Janice N. Cormier, MD, MPH1
1 Department of Surgical Oncology, Unit 444, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1400 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030
2 Department of Biostatistics and Applied Mathematics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030
Correspondence: Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Janice N. Cormier, MD, MPH; E-mail: jcormier{at}mdanderson.org.
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ABSTRACT
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Background: Unlike its more common non-invasive form, invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the skin can be biologically aggressive and is prone to recur. The objectives of this study were to identify relevant clinicopathologic prognostic factors associated with the outcomes of patients with invasive SCC in order to define a high-risk group.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of patients with invasive cutaneous SCC of the trunk or extremities who received surgical treatment at a tertiary care cancer center over the past 10 years. We examined the patterns of presentation, all known clinical and histological risk factors for recurrence, and their association with survival.
Results: 136 patients were identified, of whom 102 (74%) were male. Patterns of presentation included primary (n = 91), locally recurrent (n = 16), regional nodal (n = 24), and distant (n = 5) disease. Univariate analysis identified poorly differentiated carcinomas (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.92, P = .016), scar carcinomas (HR = 3.12, P = .008), tumor size > 2 cm (HR = 3.79, P = .006), and regional nodal disease (HR = 5.77, P < .0001) as significant risk factors for recurrence or death. On multivariate analysis, however, only regional nodal disease at presentation (HR = 7.64, P < .0001) was found to be significant.
Conclusions: Patients with invasive SCCs metastatic to regional nodes constitute a group at high risk for recurrence and death. Such patients should be considered for adjuvant therapy trials.
Key Words: Squamous cell carcinoma Skin cancer Prognosis Survival
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INTRODUCTION
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Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the skin is one of the most common cancers in the United States, and the incidence of this cancer has been rising at an alarming rate over the past two decades.1,2 Cutaneous SCCs, particularly those due to long-term sun exposure, are typically localized and thus easily cured by simple surgical excision or other local measures. However, in a subset of patients, SCC of the skin can be biologically aggressive, showing a greater propensity for local recurrence and metastasis to regional lymph nodes and distant organs.3 Once these tumors have recurred or metastasized, disease control is often difficult and survival rates are poor.4 Given the increased incidence of this cancer and the poor outcomes in subsets of patients, it is important to identify those patients at greatest risk for recurrence and death.
Previous studies have shown that biologically aggressive SCCs are often unrelated to sun exposure and are frequently located on the trunk or extremities. These studies have further identified several prognostic factors for recurrence, metastasis, and death in these patients, including tumor size, depth of invasion, degree of differentiation, and stage of disease.37 However, the most recently published studies examining prognosis and outcomes of patients with cutaneous SCCs have included heterogeneous groups of patients, including those with in situ lesions as well as lesions of the head and neck,3,8 which have been shown to exhibit a variable biological aggressiveness depending on the location of the SCC.9,10 Other studies have included only particular subsets of patients with SCC, such as only patients with locally advanced lesions7 or with lesions arising in previously burned or irradiated skin.11 Further, some of these studies have simply been clinical reviews of several smaller studies.5,6 There have been very few studies that have examined the outcome of patients with invasive SCC of the trunk and extremities, and in particular the outcome of patients with locally advanced or regional disease.4,7,12 In the present study we sought to determine the clinical and pathologic risk factors for recurrence and death in a large, consecutive series of patients with invasive SCC of the trunk and extremities in order to define a high-risk subgroup of patients.
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PATIENTS AND METHODS
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Patients with cutaneous SCC were identified by searching the Tumor Registry and Melanoma Skin Center databases at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for a pathologic diagnosis of SCC. Patients who had primary tumors of the head and neck or mucosa, had a pathologic diagnosis of in situ SCC, or were treated by Mohs micrographic surgery were excluded. A total of 136 consecutively treated patients between January 1994 and May 2004 were confirmed to have invasive SCC of the trunk or extremities. Pathologic diagnosis of invasive SCC was confirmed on all patients at presentation by dermat-opathologists at our institution. Patients were classified according to the 2002 American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system.13 Institutional review board approval was obtained for this retrospective review.
A number of clinical and pathologic factors were examined. These included age, gender, and ethnicity; known risk factors for SCC, including a history of previously injured skin (burns, chronic sinus tracts, wounds, or decubitus ulcers), radiation dermatitis, chronic immunosuppression related or unrelated to organ transplantation, leukemia, lymphoma, psoriasis, arsenic exposure, or Bowens disease; patterns of presentation; and pathologic characteristics, including tumor size, histology, perineural invasion, and nodal metastasis, with or without extracapsular extension (ECE). Information on treatment, patterns of recurrence, and survival outcomes was also obtained.
Recurrence-free survival (RFS) was the primary outcome and was defined as the time from surgical treatment that rendered the patient "no evidence of disease" (NED) to the time of local, regional, or distant recurrence or death of disease. RFS curves were constructed using the Kaplan-Meier method and were compared using the log-rank test. Secondary outcomes included disease-specific survival (DSS) and overall survival (OS). Cox proportional hazard models were fitted for univariate and multivariate analysis. All tests were two-sided, and a P-value of <.05 was considered statistically significant.
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RESULTS
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Patient Characteristics
The characteristics of the 136 patients in this study are summarized in Table 1
. The median age was 67 years (range, 3493 years), and the majority (75%) of the patients were men. The ethnicity of the patients was as follows: Caucasian (93%), Hispanic (3%), African-American (3%), and Asian-American (1%). At the time of presentation, 91 (67%) patients had primary disease, 16 (12%) had a local recurrence, 24 (17%) had regional nodal disease, and 5 (4%) had distant disease. Twelve (9%) of the 136 patients presented with more than one invasive SCC of the trunk or extremities, for a total of 149 lesions, not including those lesions that were in situ or located on the head and neck. The anatomic distribution of the 149 SCC lesions included the trunk (19%), upper extremity (54%), lower extremity (23%), and unknown primary site (4%). In addition, 20 patients (14.7%) either had a history of malignant melanoma at presentation or developed one during follow-up.
In 17 (12.5%) patients, an invasive SCC developed at the site of previously injured skin; these SCCs were designated scar carcinomas. In 6 (4%) patients, SCC developed at the site of a previous burn at a median of 35 years (range, 3184 years) after the burn injury. In 11 (8%) patients, SCC developed in the field of a chronic wound, sinus tract, or decubitus ulcer at a median of 25 years (range, 245 years) after the initiating event. Eight (6%) patients developed a SCC while on immunosuppression; 3 of these patients were chronically immunosuppressed because they were organ transplant recipients, and 5 patients were acutely immunosuppressed as a result of chemotherapy for lymphoma (n = 3) or another malignancy (n = 2). Three (2%) patients presented with a primary SCC in the field of prior radiation therapy, one of whom had been treated with radiation therapy for breast cancer and two of whom had been treated with radiation therapy for benign skin ailments. There were no patients with xeroderma pigmentosum.
Histopathologic Features
The pathologic characteristics of the primary tumors and lymph node metastases are summarized in Table 2
. All patients had histologically confirmed invasive SCC. Of the total 149 SCC lesions from 136 patients, 89 (60%) were T1 (
2 cm in diameter) lesions; 18 (12%) were T2 (> 2 cm but
5 cm) lesions; 11 (7%) were T3 (> 5 cm) lesions; and 12 (8%) were T4 (invasive of deep extradermal structures) lesions. Tumors were classified histologically as well differentiated (34%), moderately differentiated (24%), or poorly differentiated (13%). Perineural invasion was identified in 7 (5%) of the tumor specimens. ECE was identified in the lymph nodes of 16 (44%) of the 36 dissected basins and was defined as macroscopic in 5 cases and microscopic in the other 11 cases.
Treatment
Surgical resection was performed in all 136 patients at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. This included wide local excision (WLE) in 114 (84%) patients, lymph node dissection (LND) in 32 (24%) patients, and amputation in 17 (12%) patients with locally advanced disease (Table 3
). Split-thickness or full-thickness skin grafts were required in 16 (12%) patients and pedicled or free flaps in 3 (2%) patients to achieve soft tissue coverage following WLE. Amputations were performed with curative intent in 16 patients, including 9 patients with locally advanced disease and 7 patients with locoregional disease, and with palliative intent in one patient with distant metastasis. The extent of amputation varied from a digital amputation in 4 patients, to a hemipelvectomy and a forequarter amputation in 3 patients each, to a hemicorporectomy in a single patient. Thirty-two patients underwent LNDs of 36 regional nodal basins for clinically suspected or pathologically confirmed metastatic nodal disease; this included 23 of the 24 patients who presented with clinically evident regional lymph node disease.
An additional 14 (10%) patients who were deemed to be at high risk for clinically occult regional nodal metastasis underwent intraoperative lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy. The characteristics of these 14 patients are summarized in Table 4
. Several patients had known clinicopathologic risk factors for nodal metastasis, including locally recurrent disease in 6 patients, large tumor size (T3 or T4 tumors) in 6 patients, poorly differentiated tumors in 2 patients, and a history of a chronic decubitus ulcer and chronic human immunodeficiency virus infection in one patient each. Nineteen at-risk nodal basins were identified by preoperative lymphoscintigraphy in the 14 patients, and this consisted of the axilla (n = 9), the groin (n = 6), and the epitrochlear (n = 4) basins. The SLNs were successfully identified in all 19 basins. The median number of SLNs identified per patient was 3 (range, 112 nodes). No patient had histological evidence of metastatic SCC in the SLNs shown by either hematoxylineosin or immunohistochemical staining with a pan-cyto-keratin antibody. Recurrent disease developed in three of the 14 patients, including one patient who recurred in the mapped nodal basin and who subsequently underwent a therapeutic completion LND.
The perioperative mortality rate in this series was 0% and the rate of morbidity was 24%. Complications occurred in 33 patients and included infection (n = 12), skin necrosis (n = 7), seroma requiring drainage (n = 6), and lymphedema (n = 8).
Nineteen (14%) patients received radiation therapy as a component of their treatment. Radiation therapy was administered to a nodal basin in 16 patients, 11 of whom had ECE of tumor in their lymph nodes. Fourteen (10%) patients received chemotherapy as part of their treatment. Earlier in the study time period, 7 patients received a regimen of 13-cis retinoic acid, cisplatin, and interferon-alpha as part of a phase II clinical trial. More recently, 7 patients received either a platinum compound (carboplatin or cisplatin) or a taxane (paclitaxel or docetaxel) or both.
Outcomes and Risk Factors Associated With RFS
At the time of last follow-up, 73 (53%) patients were alive without evidence of disease (NED) and 9 (7%) patients were alive with disease. During the study period, 16 (12%) patients died of metastatic SCC, 16 (12%) patients died of other causes, and 22 (16%) patients died of unknown causes. At a median follow-up of 2.4 years, there were 32 recurrences in 26 patients, comprising 4 local, 12 nodal, and 16 distant recurrences. The 5-year RFS rate was 66% (95% CI, 54 % to 81%) for the entire cohort of 136 patients, 80% (95% CI, 69% to 93%) for the patients who presented without regional nodal disease, and 29% (95% CI, 12% to 67%) for the patients who presented with regional nodal disease. The 5-year DSS rate was 50% (95% CI, 39% to 66%) for the entire cohort, 53% (95% CI, 40% to 72%) for the patients who presented without regional nodal disease, and 50% (95% CI, 30% to 83%) for the patients who presented with regional nodal disease. The 5-year OS rate was 35% (95% CI, 25% to 49%) for the entire cohort, 35% (95% CI, 24% to 52%) for the patients who presented without regional nodal disease, and 42% (95% CI, 23% to 78%) for the patients who presented with regional nodal disease.
Of the 24 patients who presented with regional nodal disease, 23 underwent LNDs of 27 basins. Disease has recurred in 12 (52%) of these patients and none of the recurrences were in the dissected basin. Nine (75%) of the 12 patients whose SCC recurred after therapeutic LND have developed distant metastatic disease, and 2 of these patients also developed a nodal recurrence in a different basin. Disease has not recurred in 11 (48%) of the 23 patients who underwent therapeutic LND after presenting with regional nodal disease; 8 of these patients are NED at a median follow-up of 13 months, and 3 have died of other causes.
Of the 17 patients who underwent an amputation as part of their surgical treatment, five developed recurrences; this consisted of one synchronous local and nodal recurrence, one nodal and distant recurrence, and three distant only recurrences. Eight patients are alive and well, six are dead of disease, and three are dead of unknown or other causes. Two of the three patients who underwent a hemipelvectomy are alive without evidence of disease, both after a short follow-up; the third patient died of disease 11 months postoperatively. All three patients who had a forequarter amputation, two with curative intent, died of disease from 5 to 11 months postoperatively. The one patient who underwent a hemicorporectomy died of metastatic adenocarcinoma of the lung nearly 6 years after his definitive procedure for SCC.
The Kaplan-Meier curves stratified by each of the four identified risk factors for RFS are shown in Figs. 1
4

. Four independent risk factors for RFS were identified on univariate analysis: (1) nodal disease at presentation; (2) tumor size >2 cm; (3) presence of a scar carcinoma; and (4) poorly differentiated histology (Table 5
). However, on multivariate analysis, only regional nodal disease at presentation (HR = 7.64, 95% CI: 3.1418.6) was a significant risk factor.

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FIG. 1. Kaplan-Meier recurrence-free survival curves for patients with high-risk squamous cell carcinomas of the trunk and extremities according to scar carcinoma status (yes [28%] vs. no [74%]).
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FIG. 2. Kaplan-Meier recurrence-free survival curves for patients with high-risk squamous cell carcinomas of the trunk and extremities according to tumor size (T2T4 [39%] vs. T1 [84%]).
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FIG. 3. Kaplan-Meier recurrence-free survival curves for patients with high-risk squamous cell carcinomas of the trunk and extremities according to histological differentiation (well [88%] vs. moderate [57%] vs. poor [37%]).
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FIG. 4. Kaplan-Meier recurrence-free survival curves for patients with high-risk squamous cell carcinomas of the trunk and extremities according to nodal disease at presentation (yes [26%] vs. no [80%]). N, total sample size.
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DISCUSSION
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In our series of 136 patients, univariate analysis (Table 5
) identified four risk factors that were significantly associated with RFS: scar carcinoma, tumor diameter >2 cm, poorly differentiated histology, and nodal disease at presentation. The reported incidence of metastasis of SCC of the skin varies from less than 1% to 42% in published reports.3,7,10 This tremendous variability is primarily due to the heterogeneity of the patients studied as well as to referral bias resulting from the referral of greater numbers of high-risk patients to large centers where these studies are conducted. Metastatic disease existed at presentation in 21% of the patients in our series seen at a tertiary referral center. Forty-five (33%) of the patients had a known risk factor for cutaneous SCC other than sun exposure. These etiologic risk factors included arsenic exposure, psoriasis, lymphoma, chronic immunosuppression (such as after organ transplantation), radiation dermatitis, and scar carcinomas. However, we had an insufficient number of patients within each of these risk groups to arrive at meaningful conclusions about the individual contribution of the risk to patient outcome, with the exception of the 17 (12%) patients who presented with a scar carcinoma arising at the site of a prior burn or chronic wound. These patients had a diminished 5-year RFS (28% vs. 74%) compared with the group as a whole. This finding is consistent with the results of a study conducted more than a decade ago at our institution, in which it was found that 46 patients with SCC arising in a burn scar had a 58% recurrence rate and a 5-year overall survival rate of only 52%.11 Nonetheless, the incidence of SCC arising in a burn or chronic wound has declined over the past several decades, perhaps as a result of earlier, more effective wound coverage techniques and the increased recognition and earlier detection of scar carcinomas.11 However, as shown by the RFS rates, it appears that little progress has been made in the treatment of patients with scar carcinomas who present with advanced disease.
Tumor size, depth of invasion, and histological differentiation are known to be important prognostic factors predicting metastatic disease in patients with cutaneous SCC.3,5,7,10 In our study, the risk of recurrence or death was 3.8-fold higher in the group of patients who had primary tumors measuring > 2 cm in diameter and/or invading deep extradermal structures than in the group of patients without these features. The 5-year RFS rate was correspondingly worse (39% vs. 84%) (Figure 2
). In addition, the group of patients with poorly differentiated tumors had a 2.9-fold greater risk of metastasis or death compared with those patients with well or moderately differentiated tumors. Both of these histopathologic findings confirm what previous authors have also identified as significant prognostic factors for recurrence and death in other series.3,5 Perineural invasion has also been reported to occur in up to 7% of cutaneous SCCs and is associated with a high incidence of local recurrence and metastasis.3,14 However, because only 7 (5%) patients in the present study had histological evidence of perineural invasion, statistically meaningful conclusions about its role as a risk factor for metastasis could not be made.
Though the risk of metastasis and death is high in patients with locoregionally advanced SCCs of the trunk and extremities, aggressive surgical resection may offer a subset of these patients the possibility of long-term survival. This was borne out in our study, in which 17 patients underwent an amputation, including limb amputations in 11 patients. Recurrent disease developed in only 5 of these 17 patients, and 8 are alive and well. In fact, one patient whose malignancy required a hemicorporectomy for extirpation survived nearly 6 years before dying of another primary cancer, and 2 patients who underwent a hemipelvectomy are alive without disease after a short follow-up. Thus, patients who are medically fit and who have no evidence of distant metastatic disease should be offered radical surgery, if it can be performed with modest morbidity and mortality.
The risk for recurrence and death is also high in patients who present with clinically detectable lymph node metastasis, which in our series of patients was associated with a greater than 5-fold risk of recurrence and death and a 5-year RFS of only 29%, compared with a 5-year RFS of 80% for patients whose nodal status was N0 at presentation (Figure 4
). Nonetheless, therapeutic LNDs of all involved nodal basins have rendered nearly 50% of the patients free of disease at a median follow-up of 29 months. Thus, a therapeutic LND is recommended for patients who present with N1 disease or who subsequently develop regional lymph node recurrence. The management of the patient at high risk for regional lymph node metastasis who has no clinical or radiographic evidence of lymphadenopathy poses a dilemma. The question that arises in these patients is whether, given the significant risk of distant metastasis and death in patients with clinically detectable lymphadenopathy, it is reasonable to surmise that the identification of subclinical regional lymph node metastases at an earlier and thus theoretically more curable stage leads to improved disease control and survival.
Selective lymphadenectomy, or SLN biopsy, is now established as a highly accurate method for staging nodal basins at risk for regional metastases in patients with breast cancer and melanoma.15,16 In particular, SLN biopsy provides crucial information that determines prognosis and guides the further treatment of patients with these malignancies. Several groups have recently reported on the utility of SLN biopsy in patients with high-risk cutaneous SCC17,18 and other nonmelanoma skin cancers.19,20 In these four studies, a total of 18 patients with high-risk SCC of the trunk or extremity who underwent lymphatic mapping and SLN biopsy, and the SLN biopsy results were positive in nine patients. Additional therapy in the form of completion LND and/or radiation therapy was then administered selectively to those patients with the positive findings, thereby sparing the remaining nine patients with negative SLN biopsy findings the morbidity resulting from unnecessary treatment. All 14 patients who underwent SLN biopsy in the present series had negative SLN biopsy findings, but there was one false-negative result. This patient eventually developed disease in the mapped nodal basin and underwent a therapeutic LND. Most of the 14 patients in this series had known clinicopathologic risk factors for nodal metastasis, like the 18 patients pooled from the other four series. It is not clear, however, why none of our patients had a positive SLN whereas 50% of the patients in the other series had positive SLNs. Perhaps this finding is best explained by the small sample size in this and the other studies, such that the role of SLN biopsy in the management of invasive SCC of the skin of the trunk and extremities is unclear at this time and can only be determined by larger studies.
In summary, a subset of patients with invasive SCC of the skin of the trunk and extremities will present with locoregionally advanced disease. Aggressive surgical resection of all local and regional disease, which in some cases may necessitate radical amputation and/or lymph node dissections of multiple nodal basins, should be considered the standard treatment for these patients. The role of SLN biopsy in the staging and management of patients with high-risk SCC of the trunk and extremities remains unclear. Close follow-up of all patients with cutaneous SCC is critical in order that recurrent disease, new primary lesions, and other secondary malignancies can be promptly identified and treated.21 Patients with invasive cutaneous SCCs of the trunk and extremities that are poorly differentiated, metastatic to regional lymph nodes, or > 2 cm in diameter, or that arise as scar carcinomas constitute a group at high risk for recurrence and death. This high-risk group should be considered in the design of future prospective studies and adjuvant therapy trials.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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The authors thank Beth Notzen for her editorial assistance and Orlean Smith for assistance with manuscript preparation.
Received for publication July 22, 2005.
Accepted for publication February 1, 2006.
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