Patients' perceptions of their cosmetic appearance more than ten years after radiotherapy for basal cell carcinoma.

Of 47 elderly patients treated by simple radiotherapeutic techniques for basal cell carcinomas, 12 are alive and free of disease more than 10 years after treatment. They were asked to rate their perception of the current cosmetic appearance of their lesions on a scale consisting of: excellent, very good, good, mediocre, and poor. Six of the 12 rated their cosmetic appearance as excellent, three considered it very good, and three called it good. Despite undeniable objective deterioration of the cosmetic appearance of irradiated basal cell carcinomas, patients appear to be pleased with the results.