Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common cancer in Caucasians and the average risk of developing BCC is approximately 30% (1,2). In Finland, BCC is the most common cancer and the incidence of BCC is approximately 49/100 000 in men and 45/100 000 in women (3).~There are several types of BCC (4) of which superficial type can be managed with non-operative treatment. All the other types of BCC (micronodular, nodular, infiltrative) require operative treatment which means surgical removal of the tumor with a few millimeters healthy skin margin (5). The aim of the operative treatment is to remove the tumor entirely so that the healthy skin margins are as sparing as possible and that the functional and cosmetic outcomes are as satisfactory as possible. Margin positiveness leads to one or more reoperations which increase the risk of surgical complications.~Differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) based application called automatic tissue analysis (ATAS) can be utilized to identify tumor cells from healthy tissue. Tissue identification is done by analyzing tissue smoke that is generated by the use of an electrosurgical instrument called diathermy (6,7).~The objective of the trial is to test whether it is possible to identify BCC from normal skin by using ATAS. A 4mm punch biopsy of BCC tumor and a control biopsy of healthy skin will be collected from 30 - 40 patients undergoing BCC tumor excision. The biopsies will be examined in the research laboratory with ATAS to test tissue recognition.
The trial is a single-center, non-randomized feasibility study aiming to evaluate the feasibility of ex-vivo tissue analysis using differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) of tissue smoke generated by the use of an electrosurgical instrument.~Patients recruited in the trial receive standard-of-care basal cell carcinoma tumor excision surgery.