Clinical and histopathological profile of basal cell carcinomas of the head and neck: An analysis of 95 cases

Abstract

Background/Objective: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common form of cancer in Caucasians. The most common type of BCC is the nodular form. This study was undertaken to analyze the all histopathological subtypes and tumor diameter with epidermal ulceration of head and neck localized BCC with regard to sex, age and anatomical distribution in a population from the Mid-Anatolian Region of Turkey.Methods: Ninety-five patients histopathologically diagnosed with BCC of head and neck at our dermatology and pathology clinics were retrospectively examined and assessed. The diagnosis and subtypes with the tumor diameter and epidermal ulceration were confirmed by two pathologists. Gender, age at excision and location were recorded. Results:The mean age at excision of a BCC was 69.98 ± 13.07 years. The nodular BCC was the most frequent type (23.2%), followed by the superficial and micronodular types (22.1%). The micronodular, nodular and superficial BCC occurred more often in males and solid and infiltrative types more often in females. Almost all types showed slight predominance for nose localization. The superficial form was the dominant type on the cheek. The mean tumor diameter is 8.94 mm with the range of 0.5-38 mm. There was a statistically significant difference between the micronodular with the smaller diameter of 5.25 mm and the other types of BCC diameter. Epidermal ulceration was observed in most of the patients (77.9%) and there was not any significant difference among the types of BCC. Conclusion:Our results confirmed the outcomes of the previous reports in the literature. We found that the superficial type of BCC of the head and neck region most commonly occurred on the cheek.