Introduction and Current Landscape of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Dr. Singh opens the program by welcoming the panel and framing the discussion around identifying high-risk patients with cSCC and optimizing the multidisciplinary treatment journey. Dr. Singh previews the key topics: recognizing high-risk features that place patients at risk of progression, navigating the multidisciplinary care pathway, and reviewing the latest evidence supporting cemiplimab in both the advanced and adjuvant settings, with clinical cases to ground the discussion in real-world decision-making.

Dr. Park is then asked about features that portend worse prognosis. She groups high-risk characteristics into several categories: tumor size (>4 cm, or >2 cm on the head and neck), depth beyond subcutaneous fat, pathologic features (poor differentiation, perineural invasion, especially large-caliber nerves, lymphovascular invasion), anatomic location (head and neck), immune suppression (particularly in solid organ transplant patients), and clinical behavior (rapid growth, ulceration, pain, palpable lymph nodes, fixation to underlying structures, recurrence). Dr. Singh affirms this approach, noting that a transplant patient with a 1.9-cm moderately differentiated ear tumor would be considered high risk despite technically being stage I under traditional staging guidelines.