Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

Abstract

ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND:
BCC is a malignant epithelial neoplasm constitutes 70%-75% of all skin cancers .It arises from basal cells layer of the epidermis. It has a higher degree of invasive potential with an extremely rare ability for distant metastases so the mainstay treatment is surgical excision.
OBJECTIVE:
To study histological types of BCC, age and gender preference, size, anatomical location and find a correlation between various clinical and histological parameters.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
In this retrospective study all histologically proven cases of BCC during two years period, in the period from October 2014 to February 2017 (in the pathology lab of Alwasity teaching hospital for plastic and orthopedic surgery in bagdad) were collected .The microscopic features of these tumors were carefully reviewed including histological types and surgical margin status and compared with the related clinical information.
RESULTS:
This study enrolled 76 excisional biopsies of basal cell carcinomas include 34 (44.74%) for males and 42(55.26%) for females, with mean age of 55.64 ±14.613. 63 (82.89%) were above forty years old. 72(94.73%) were located in the sun exposed areas. Regarding histological types, 64(84.21%) were mixed, 6(7.89%) were nodular, 3(3.95%) were pigmented and 3(3.95%) were superficial. According to the size of the excised tumors, those above two cm were 22(28.95%). Regarding surgical margin status, 28(36.84%) were margin positive and 48(63.16%) were margin negative. The study found that there is a significant statistical relationship between histological type and surgical margins status with P value 0.030(<0.05) .By Analyzing histological type in regard to age, gender, locations and size, the study find that there is no statistical relationship between them with P value (>0.05) , also there is no significant statistical relationship between tumor size and age ,gender , tumor location with P value (>0.05).
CONCLUSION:
Basal cell carcinoma is malignant skin tumors most commonly affects older population with a strong association to sun exposure. Commonly present with a size of two cm. and below .There is a significant associations between histological types and completeness of surgical excison highlighting the importance of histological sub typing for prognostic purposes and giving a clue to the surgeon about management decision since the clinical (macroscopic) and histological (microscopic) types of BCC are closely correlated. Otherwise there is no age, gender and location preference of various histological types and there is no significant relationship between tumor size and various clinical parameters.