Dermatology in General Medicine

Common prevalence distributions in squamous cell carcinoma‐associated cutaneous tumours

“…Apart from actinic keratoses only cutaneous horn exceeded the prevalence of SCC. Similarly, in a population‐based incidence study of Kauai white residents, 4 the frequency of keratoacanthoma was lower but near to that of SCC and not either greater or many times less, as in other reports 1 …”

“…Similar to previous observations, frequencies were many times greater in the elderly, whereas peak prevalence age group seems to correlate with the predominant skin type frequencies of the respective population. In our series, along with an increasing rate in progressively older age groups, peak prevalences were gradually reached in the ninth decade of life (> 80 years), instead of 50–75 years detected in more fair‐complexioned populations 1 . However, statistically (chi‐square) there was a plateau of detection rates after 60 years in cutaneous horn, actinic cheilitis and Bowen's disease, but not in actinic keratoses ( P < 0.0001), solitary keratoacanthomas ( P = 0.005) and SCC ( P = 0.004).…”

“…In the context of actinic skin disease, associations with actinic keratoses, cutaneous horn, solitary keratoacanthomas, actinic cheilitis, and Bowen's disease with fair complexion, geographical latitude‐related chronic solar damage and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) are more or less well documented 1 . The geographical latitude of Greece is between 41°44′58″ and 34°45′02″ N and there is a skin type ≥ III predominance in the population at large.…”

“…In this cross‐sectional study (1995–2002) in an outpatient setting of a general state hospital dermatological teaching clinic, diagnosis and differential diagnosis were based on classic clinical and/or histopathological criteria as appropriate 1 . The overall denominator and reference population consisted of 50 237 outpatients, aged 35 days to 96 years, consecutively examined by dermatologists (men 20 909 [41.6%] and women 29 328 [58.4%]) (Table 1).…”

“…Except for SCC, these are in line with the majority of previous estimations, obviously independently of latitude and skin type distributions. Equal prevalence in SCC in contrast to a twofold male preponderance detected in lighter skin populations, is probably due to a decreased susceptibility of Southern Europeans as a function of pigmentary determinants of cutaneous sun sensitivity 1,3 …”