Depth determination of skin cancers treated with superficial brachytherapy: ultrasound vs. histopathology

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare high frequency ultrasonography (HFUS) and histpathologic assessment done by punch biopsy in order to determine depth of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), in both superficial and nodular BCCs prior to brachytherapy treatment. Material and methods: This study includes 20 patients with 10 superficial and 10 nodular BCCs. First, punch biopsy was done to confirm the diagnosis and to measure tumour depth (Breslow rate). Subsequently, HFUS was done to measure tumour depth to search for correlation of these two techniques. Results: Neither clear tendency nor significance of the punch biopsy vs. HFUS depth determination is observed. Depth value differences …