Malignant Fungating Wounds in Locally Aggressive Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Case Series.

Despite surgical removal being considered the first-line treatment, managing high-risk squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cases remains challenging and lacks uniformity as associated complications of less common secondary bacterial infections are underreported. The skin, as well as its appendages, constitute the first line of defense against infectious pathogens. In patients with locally aggressive skin cancers, susceptibility to infectious microorganisms is elevated due to skin lesions and immunosuppression resulting from chemotherapy, surgery, immunotherapy, and stem cell transplantation. Furthermore, immunosuppressed patient populations, when infected, often have extended disease duration and heightened disease burden. Malignant fungating wounds (MFWs), cancerous lesions that typically occur during the terminal stages of a patient's illness when tumors infiltrate the skin and surrounding tissue, may further complicate cases as they often can be misdiagnosed as abscesses or infections. Due to this, we sought to thoroughly characterize the disease progression, treatment efficacy, and risk factors of two patients with locally aggressive SCCs afflicted with MFWs and secondary