Treatment of Basal Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

To the Editor.— A friend of mine, Gilbert G. Eade, MD, of Seattle does not defend the very excellent comment inThe Journal(228:463, 1974) of Drs. Brodkin, Bleiberg, and Abbey. I confirm their article and voice disagreement with Dr. Eade. In our practice, we see over and over again severe facial destruction because the simple basal cell carcinomas are overlooked by the general practitioner, or are considered innocuous. There are many areas of the body where these lesions are slow-growing for a long time, but we consider those on the edge of the nose, the ear, particularly the concha, the eyelid and inner canthus, and the lips as specific areas where a small lesion can be eradicated without any effort. Nevertheless, they will cause terrific expense and prolongation of therapy if they become so involved that total reconstruction is in order or if in the shorter course of simple