Basal cell carcinoma trends in Thailand: a 10-year retrospective study of demographic, clinical and histopathological features

Abstract

Background: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common skin cancer with globally increasing incidence. To date, the information regarding BCC in Thailand is limited.Objective: To evaluate the demographic, clinical, histopathological trends of BCC and other contributing factors.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the demographic, clinical and histological data of all BCC outpatients from January 2009 to December 2018.Results: From 278 BCC patients recruited to this study, most of them (71.6%) were older than 60 years old. The most common histological subtype was nodular BCC (63.3%). A statistically significant association was observed between histological variant and location of the tumor; H and M area were associated with nodular BCC, L area was related to superficial subtype (p-value < 0.001). Misdiagnosis of BCC was observed in 53 cases, mostly as melanocytic nevus (30.2%), and about quarter (26.4%) was made by board-certified dermatologists.Conclusions: Nodular BCC is significantly associated with H and M area, while superficial subtype is related to L location. Quarter of the patients already have large tumors at their first presentation. Misdiagnosis of BCC is not uncommon.