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ePaper created 2014-09-15, 12:31:02 | version 1.32.01
a study on P53 immunostaining in UV-exposed and sunscreen protected skin, in which the buttocks of healthy volunteers were exposed to the sun on the beach. Besides prevention, the department became interested in the epidemiology and etiology of skin cancer, especially BCC.[2] Research on the etiology of BCC still continues and now focusses on epigenetic changes.[3] Maybe with (epi-)genetics we can ultimately explain how BCC develops and find a treatment to stop this. The dermato- oncology research also covered two other common skin (pre-) malignancies: actinic keratosis and squamous cell carcinoma. Several clinical studies were executed on lasers, actinic keratosis and squamous cell carcinoma.[4,5] Although Mohs surgery was practiced more and more in Maastricht, it was still not accepted by all dermatologists worldwide, let alone by plastic surgeons. So it was time to convince the opponents with a large randomized controlled trial. Six hundred patients with high risk primary or recurrent BCC in the face were included. This study made clear that Mohs surgery is treatment of preference in recurrent BCC and large BCC of an aggressive subtype.[6,7] At the end of the nineties of last century, dermatologists already foresaw a huge increase in skin cancer, especially BCC. So the search for effective treatments continued. And so photodynamic therapy (PDT) was introduced. In fact PDT has been a research topic at our department, from its early days onwards . It seemed promising.[8] However, years later, a large randomized controlled trial showed that it wasn’t a good alternative to surgery for nodular BCC.[9] For superficial BCC, the new-comer imiquimod was superior to PDT and even the good old 5-fluorouracil showed equal effectiveness to PDT.[10] So the search goes on to find a treatment for BCC that is non-invasive, as effective as surgery and that (as an ideal) can be performed by the patient at home. But our ultimate goal is to find something that prevents skin cancer from developing and stop the enormous rise in its incidence. 147 The MUMC oncology research team. From left to right: Valerie Verstraeten, Monique Thissen, Aimée Arits, Klara Mosterd and Nicole Kelleners-Smeets. BWEADVSMGFINCORR:Opmaak 1 21-07-2014 17:41 Pagina 147