Oral Hedgehog-Pathway Inhibitors for Basal-Cell Carcinoma

Basal-cell carcinoma of the skin is the most common cancer worldwide, and its prevalence is increasing, accounting for 80% of nonmelanoma skin cancers.1 In 2006, more than 2.1 million new cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer were treated in the United States.2 Basal-cell carcinoma has many clinical subtypes and can progress to an advanced state in which surgery or radiation therapy is not considered to be helpful (locally advanced basal-cell carcinoma). Such lesions arise either from earlier lesions that have not been treated or from a recurrence of aggressive basal-cell carcinoma. Metastatic basal-cell carcinoma is rare.1 Exposure to ultraviolet light is . . .