Photodynamic therapy versus surgical excision to basal cell carcinoma: meta‐analysis

SummaryBackground Surgical excision (SE) is a first-line treatment for basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Topical photodynamic therapy (PDT) has also been used and has cosmetic advantages over surgery. The latest European guidelines for topical PDT recommended that it be used to treat nodular basal cell carcinoma (nBCC) but a consensus has not been reached. Our study was to evaluate the efficacy of PDT versus SE for the treatment for nBCC by a meta-analysis. Materials and methods We searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, CKNI, VIP, and relevant references up to October 2014 including randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared PDT with SE for treatment of nBCC patients. A meta-analysis was conducted by using the Cochrane Collaboration's revman 5.0 software. Results We selected five studies that covered 596 of pathologically confirmed nBCC. We compared complete response rate (RR) of PDT and SE at 3 months and 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years. We found that the RR was 0.95 (0.90, 1.00), 0.89 (0.80, 0.99), 0.83 (0.69, 1.00), 0.73 (0.63, 0.85), 0.84 (0.65, 1.08), and 0.79 (0.61, 1.03), respectively, for those time points, the cumulative probability of recurrence for the time points post-treatment, with an estimate at RR 5.28 (1.85, 15.12), 6.48 (2.46, 17.09), 9.67 (3.02, 30.99), 7.73 (2.81, 21.28), and 8.25 (3.01–22.62), respectively. Conclusion We observed no significant differences between PDT and SE for the complete RR, but there was an increased cumulative probability of recurrence. More large-scale RCTs are required to verify our findings.