Common malignant cutaneous conditions among albinos in Kenya

Abstract

Background: Albinos in Africa are at constant risk of developing skin cancer due to the damage caused by ultra-violet exposure. This study identifies the common skin conditions among albinos in Kenya as a country located along the equator. Methods: In this descriptive study on albino patients who were admitted to Mbagathi District Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya the census method was used for sampling and a total of 151 albinos were registered. All necessary data including age, gender, type, site and the number of skin lesions were recorded. Suspected patients with malignant and premalignant lesions were studied individually through skin biopsy and histopathological investigation. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Albinos with serious skin lesions were 121(80%) patients. Females were 64 (52.9%). The frequency of the following premalignant and malignant skin lesions including actinic-cheilitis, solar elastosis, actinic keratosis (AK), basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were 17.88%, 11.92%, 37.08%, 7.94% and 5.29%, respectively. Hands (20.52%), face (19.20%), head (18.18%), shoulder (14.56%) and neck (7.94%) were the most affected areas by malignant and premalignant lesions. Conclusions: BCC was the most common type of cutaneous malignancy on the face and shoulders while AK was the most common cutaneous pre-malignancy on the hands and face in albinos in Kenya. Therefore, appropriate physical protection, avoiding any trauma when carrying sharp, heavy or rough instruments by the shoulder and hands, and finally urgent and quality treatment for any lesion even a small erosion and ulcer, especially on exposed areas in albinos, are recommended.

Dermatological and Epidemiological Profiles of Patients with Albinism in São Paulo, Brazil, between 2010 and 2017: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…A study in Kenya involving 151 patients with albinism reported severe actinic lesions in 80% of patients, mostly Age, sun exposure, and sunburn were statistically significant (p < 0.05). between the ages of 21 and 30 years [29]. However, the African data and the current results differed substantially from the European reports.…”

“…3, 4). The tumors were preferentially located in the head and neck (42.6%), followed by the trunk (37%), and limbs (20.4%), which follows the trend of higher prevalence in the areas with most sun exposure [11,12,28,29,[31][32][33][35][36][37].…”

Histopathologic patterns of cutaneous malignancies in individuals with oculocutaneous albinism in Anambra state, Nigeria: a paradigm swing?

“…This disproportionately higher frequency of BCCs among the albino population is consistent with several reports showing BCCs to be more common than SCCs among Caucasians [27,28], fair-skinned normal pigmented Africans [6][7][8][9][10]29] and among albinos [17,30] than was earlier reported.…”

“…Although this differs from earlier studies which showed BCCs to be infrequent among African albinos [2,15], the finding of SCC/BCC ratio of 1:2.3 further confirms that both BCCs and SCCs occur commonly in albinos comparable to the ratios reported in other studies in Africa which found a ratio of 1: 1.5 [17,30], in lighter complexioned Africans [6][7][8][9] and in Caucasians [27,28] and closely approximates the ratio reported by Kiprono et al [18] in Tanzania (Table 2) which found an SCC/BCC ratio of 1.2: 1 and Ademola et al [19] at Ibadan, Nigeria, with a ratio of 1:1.…”

“…However, data on the pattern of skin cancers among albinos in Africa are inconsistent. Although most of the older retrospective studies have suggested that SCCs accounted for a higher prevalence of the skin cancers found in albinos [1][2][3][4][5]14], with melanomas reportedly rare [15,16], recent reports have shown that BCCs are as common as SCCs in albinos [17][18][19]. It is also important to note that most of the reported studies were retrospective involving skin biopsies which had been submitted to the laboratories in the management of such patients.…”