A critical analysis of the classifications of squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal vestibule

Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal vestibule (NV-SCC) has an estimated incidence of 0.4 per 100,000 inhabitants. Standard of care includes surgery with or without adjuvant radiotherapy, or definitive radiotherapy. Different irradiation techniques are available, such as brachytherapy or external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), or a combination of both. Three are the main staging systems: the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) for non-melanomatous skin cancers (NMSC), the AJCC for cancers of nasal cavity and ethmoid sinus and the Wang system. However, there is still no uniform consensus on which is the most appropriate to apply in cases of NV-SCC, determining uncertainties on patients’ clinical evaluation, treatment strategies and prognosis definition. Currently these classifications are often interchangeably used in clinical practice, but many are the weak spots that each of them displays.