Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans: how wide is wide in surgical excision?

Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans is a rare mesenchimal tumour mainly characterized by its local aggressiveness and high reported recurrence rates. Classically, wide excisional surgery with at least 3 cm of free tissue margins is recommended as treatment. We present a series of 18 patients with variable gross free tissue margins but confirmed histological free margins in all cases whatever the surgical excision really was. Only one patient presented a local recurrence (5.5%) of a very large (14 cm) sarcomatous variant of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. Mean follow-up in this series was 52.1 months. Those results emphasize that histological rather than theoretical "golden rules" are mandatory to locally control this aggressive neoplasm.