Volume 24, Issue 105, September - October, 2020

The prevalence and histological patterns of malignant skin tumors in Albaha, Saudi Arabia: A retrospective study

Hasan S. AL-Ghamdi

Internal Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Al Baha University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Internal Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Al Baha University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Email: Hasanalghamdi8@gmail.com; H.saeed@bu.edu.sa

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The dermatological malignancy has wide varieties in their prevalence all over the world and even within the same country depending on multifactor including environmental as exposure to ultraviolet rays, chemicals and host-related factors such as genetic vulnerability, age, sex, presence of precursor lesions, and pre-existing medical conditions. In Saudi Arabia, several studies have been conducted aimed to investigate the prevalence and histological pattern of malignant dermatological tumors; of these areas Dammam, Qassim, Jeddah, and Asir, but, up to now, there are no studies to investigate both the prevalence and pattern of malignant skin tumors in Albaha province so the aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of skin cancer in Albaha province. Methods: This study was done after taking the ethical approval from the ethical committee of Faculty of medicine, Albaha University. A retrospective study was carried out in Albaha province hospitals (Governmental and some private hospitals) following the roles applied for conducting the research. All recorded dermatological cancer cases between January 2010 and December 2019 with both histological diagnoses and their clinical data were obtained. Results: A 124 skin cancer cases were obtained and the median age of the patients was 58 years, 91 (73%) patients were males and 33 were female (26.6%). 57 cases (46%) of Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), 35 cases (28.2%) for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), 13 cases (10.5%) for cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL), 7 cases (5.7%) for malignant melanoma, 4 cases (3.2%) for Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), 3 cases (2.4%) for Baso-squamous cell carcinoma (BASOSCC), 2 cases (1.6%) for dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) and 3 cases (2.4%) of metastatic origin. Most cases of SCC were moderate differentiated grade II. 51 BCC cases (89.5%), followed by 29 SCC (82.9%), 3 BASOSCC (100%) and one case of MM (14.3%) were found in head and neck area. In the extremities; 5 cases of BCC (9.8%), 6 cases of SCC (17.1%), 3 cases of CTCL (23%), 5 cases of MM (71.4%), 4 cases of KS (100%) and 1 case of breast metastasis (33.3%) were found. In the trunk region, 1 case of BCC (2%), 10 cases of CTCL (77%), 1 case of melanoma (14.3%), 2 cases (100%) of DFSP and 2 cases (66.7%) of metastases from lung carcinoma. Conclusion: The most common skin cancer seen in albaha province is Basal cell carcinoma (46%), followed by Squamous cell carcinoma (28.2%) and Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma (10.5%), however other tumors such as Malignant Melanoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma, Baso-squamous cell carcinoma and Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans are encountered, their prevalence did not exceed 10% of the tumors obtained. The most frequent site of primary skin cancer was in the head and neck (67.7%), followed by the extremities and trunk region respectively. Our study findings were compared with some studies in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and some countries.

Keywords: Basal cell carcinoma, Squamous cell carcinoma, Cutaneous T cell lymphoma, Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberance, Skin tumors.

Medical Science, 2020, 24(105), 2767-2774

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