Abstract
Background
A 15-year audit (from 2010 to 2025) of the outcome of treatment of recurrent keloid tumours by fractionated superficial X-ray radiotherapy (SXRT) was undertaken at Cancer Centre London. The audit result was that, of the 23 keloid recurrences which had developed in the cohort of 158 keloids originally treated, all were found to have been successfully re-treated: the mean period of follow-up was 6-years 8-months (ref. 1).
A case series of individual patient outcomes has been selected from the 23 keloid recurrences to illustrate the process and success of re-treatment for a range of: body sites (e.g. earlobe, sternum, etc.); treatment doses; kVs; patient ethnicities; and gender. Consideration was also given to establishing whether identifiable factors for keloid recurrence were present at initial treatment by surgery and SXRT with a view to establishing whether patients at greater risk of recurrence could be identified and, in turn, monitored by long term follow-up, so facilitating re-treatment at an early stage.