The combination of curettage and cryosurgery may be a safe and effective treatment method for patients with basal cell carcinoma, according to a novel study published by Backman et al in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. researchers applied and analyzed two different variants of the combination of curettage and cryosurgery in 116 patients with a median age of 72 years who had a total of 202 basal cell carcinoma tumors. Half of the tumors were treated with one session of freezing, and the other half with two sessions of freezing.
Although the treatment produced wounds that took a few weeks to heal and left scars, the combination treatment was well tolerated by the patients involved in the study. After 1 year of follow-up, the researchers found that among the 202 tumors treated, only 1 of them recurred. “Our research clearly shows that, when carried out properly, this method is both safe and cost-effective compared to other commonly used and more resource-intensive methods,” highlighted the study authors.