Background: To investigate the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognostic factors of trichilemmal carcinoma (TC), and to determine an optimal treatment strategy for these patients.
Methods: This retrospective study enrolled consecutive patients who were admitted to the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center between 1998 and 2012.
Results: The key prognostic factors influencing the survival were lymph nodes metastasis and surgery margin. Multivariate analysis revealed that there was no risk factor for patient survival.
Conclusions: Surgery margin and lymph nodes metastasis were prognostic factors that influenced the treatment outcome. Simple excision with 1 cm margins is safe, inexpensive and effective for the treatment of TC; and postoperative follow-up of the patient to facilitate early diagnosis of the recurrence and distant metastasis is necessary. Systemic chemotherapy should be considered for the distance metastases patients.
Keywords: Chemotherapy; Locoregional recurrence; Lymph nodes metastasis; Treatment strategy; Trichilemmal carcinoma.