Mucoscopy of lip squamous cell carcinoma and correlation with skin phototype and histological differentiation: a multicentric retrospective observational study by the International Dermoscopy Society

Abstract

Background There is a scarcity of published data on the dermoscopic morphology of lip squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and its variability according to the histological differentiation degree and patient’s ethnicity as per skin phototype. Objectives To evaluate the dermoscopic features of SCC of the lips and identify possible dermoscopic clues that may aid in differentiation between well‐differentiated, moderately‐differentiated, and poorly‐differentiated lesions, as well as between “fair” skin (Fitzpatrick skin phototypes I‐III) and “dark” skin (Fitzpatrick skin phototypes IV‐VI). Methods The clinical profile and dermoscopic images of patients of any age and either gender with histologically confirmed lip SCC collated from seven dermatological centers were retrospectively evaluated for dermoscopic clues as per certain predefined criteria. Results A total of 60 lesions from 60 patients were included in the analysis. Histologically, well, moderate, and poordifferentiation were seen in 24 (40%), 14 (23.3%), and 22 (36.7%) of the lesions, respectively. Other than the presence of brown‐to‐gray dots/globules, which was exclusively seen in cases with dark phototypes (19.4% P = 0.035), no other dermoscopic feature was statistically significant in differentiating between the two skin types. Some dermoscopic findings were observed specifically with statistical significance: perivascular white halos (P = 0.049) and whitish‐yellow background in well‐differentiated lesions (P = 0.003); pink background in moderately‐differentiated lesions (P = 0.003); and red background with dense vascularity in poorly‐differentiated lesions (P < 0.001). Conclusions The presence of vessels, scale/crust, and keratinization‐associated white structures were the most common dermoscopic clues in lip SCC.

Dermoscopy of Cheilitis: A Comprehensive Review of Principal Findings

“…Clinically, keratotic AC plaques can progress to thickening and induration, nodule and rapid growth, and eventually ulcerate one or more of them, causing bleeding and pain. Dermoscopic features of cutaneous SCC have been well described [22][23][24] (Figure 4):…”

“…Moving to the dermoscopic analysis based on histological features of the lesions, Kumar, et al [23], they observed that lip SCC may display characteristic findings according to the differentiation degree. In particular, the main difference among the three histological sub-groups was in the background; being whitish-yellow in well-differentiated lesions, pink in cheilitis by identifying specific features associated with the condition.…”

Dermoscopic Evaluation of Actinic Changes in the Lips of Indigenous Children Living at High Altitude in Ecuador: A Descriptive Study

“…Dermoscopic features in adults have been described in some reports as normal variants, inflammatory, vascular, pigmented, autoimmune, and neoplastic conditions on the lips [ 12 , 13 ]. Although dermoscopy is a promising tool to assess localized skin architecture defects in children, the dermoscopic description of lips in infants is scarce [ 14 ].…”