Analysis of the appearance of different histological types of basal cell carcinoma, localization of the lesions, the age and sex of patients

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common, locally malignant neoplasm which develops very slowly but may cause extensive destruction in case of local infiltration. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between the histological type of the tumor, the sex and the age of the patients and the localization of the lesions among the tested group.
The retrospective analysis was based on 374 patients with basal cell carcinoma (189 women and 185 men), diagnosed and treated in the Department of Dermatology of Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences in Poznan in 1997-2002. The diagnosis was established upon the examinations of biopsy specimens. The specimens were formalin fixed, parafin embedded, stained with hematoxylin and eosin and examined under microscope.
The average age of patients was 66±12,8 years. The age groups were; <30 years: 3 patients (0.8%), 30-39 years: 7 patients (1.9%), 40-49 years: 31 patients (8.3%), 50-59 years: 58 patients (15.5%), 60-69 years: 120 patients (32.1%), 70-79 years: 107 patients (28.6%), >79 years: 48 patients (12.8%).
The incidence of histological types of the basal cell carcinoma was: ca basocellulare solidum 29.4%, ca basocellulare superficiale multicentricum 27.3%, ca basocellulare cicatrisans 19.8%, ca basocellulare adenoides 10.7%, ca basocellulare pigmentosum 5.3%, ca basocellulare styloides 2.7%,
ca basospinocellulare 1.9%, ca basocellulare cysticum 1.6%, ca basocellulare keratoticum 1.3%. The most common histological type among women was ca basocellulare solidum (30.7%) and among men it was ca basocellulare solidum and superficiale multicentricum (28.1%).
The following localizations were observed: the unhaired skin of the head (58.3%) (the nose 20.6%, the cheek 11.8%, the temple 8.25%, the forehead 7.7%, the angle of the eye 4.4%, the auricle 2.6%, the lip 2.3%, the chin 1.8%, the eyelid 0.5%), the trunk 24.2%, the upper limb 4.6%, the lower limb 3.8%, the neck 5.4%, scalp 2.6%.
The most common localization of the lesions both for men (51,4%) and women (65,1%) was the unhaired skin of the head.
Statistically significant correlation was observed between: histological types of basal cell carcinoma and the localization of the lesions; between the sex of the patients and the localization only during the comparison of all lesion from the unhaired skin of the head together. The most common localizations for ca baso superficiale multicentricum were the trunk and the limbs. However, there was no correlation between those factors while analysing the localizations separately.