Our colleagues, Massey et al., have executed an elegantly designed, matched retrospective cohort study.
1 The population presented with primary nasal keratinocyte carcinomas less than 3 cm in size, and approximately 90% were basal cell carcinomas (BCCs), 9% were squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs), and 1% were basosquamous carcinomas. Patients were treated at the Veteran Affairs Boston Healthcare System between 2000 and 2010. The exposure was the type of treatment. Patients who underwent total margin-controlled excision (TMCE;
n = 148) were retrospectively, appropriately matched with patients who underwent standard excision (SE;
n = 148) according to all but one reported exposure. The median diameter of tumors treated with SE (8 mm) was marginally larger than tumors treated with TMCE (7 mm,
p = 0.02). …