Evaluation of the relationship of clinical, histopathological and dermoscopic findings with histopathological subtype and depth of invasion in basal cell carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common type of cancer all over the world and its incidence is gradually increasing. Our study included 52 lesions belonging to 46 patients who were diagnosed with BCC histopathologically and whose dermoscopic examination records could be accessed via the Fotofinder device. The main purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between the clinical, demographic, histopathological and dermoscopic data of patients diagnosed with BCC in our clinic, with the histopathological subtype and depth of invasion, and to compare the statistically significant data as a result of the analysis of the clinical, demographic, histopathological and dermoscopic data of the patients with the literature. Clinical and demographic data of the BCC patients included in the study, such as gender, age, skin phototype, localization, number and size of the lesion, different skin cancer history, radiotherapy and phototherapy history, were obtained from the patient records in our clinical archive. The mean age of 46 BCC patients included in our study was 62,57±16,02, and the youngest of the patients was 25 years old, and the oldest was 95 years old. Twenty-three (50%) of the patients were male and 23 (50%) were female. The mean age of male patients was 61,61±17,17 years, and the mean age of female patients was 63,52±15,11 years. BCC was detected most frequently in the age range of 60- 69 with a rate of 28,3%, and it constituted 92,3% of all cases between the ages of 40-89. Nodular BCC was found to be the most common histopathological subtype of BCC with a rate of 51,9% (n=27). BCC was detected most frequently in the head and neck region (71,1%) in the body, and most commonly in the nose (35,1%) in the head and neck region. It was found that superficial type BCC was located statistically significantly more frequently on the trunk compared to other histopathological subtypes (p<0,05). When the tumor histopathological subtypes were analyzed according to the mean depth of invasion, no statistically significant difference was found between them (p<0,05). Arborized vessels were found to be the most common dermoscopic finding with a rate of 57,7%. When the frequency of dermoscopic findings in histopathological subtypes is examined; the frequencies of mapple leaf-like structures, spoke wheel like structures and concentric structures in superficial BCC were found to be statistically significant (p<0,05). No statistically significant correlation were found between other dermoscopic findings and histopathological subtypes (p>0,05). It is thought that the relationship between dermoscopic findings and histopathological subtypes will be better understood with the data to be obtained from multicenter and larger patient populations in the future and may guide the treatment plan. Keywords: Basal cell carcinoma, dermoscopy, histopathological subtype