Understanding malignancy tendencies in skin of color key to prevention, treatment
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
DENVER — Individuals with skin of color are more likely to have pigmented basal cell carcinoma and present with keratinocyte carcinoma at a younger age than white non-Hispanic individuals, according to a study presented here.
“Despite the lower frequency of keratinocyte carcinoma, individuals with skin of color experience disproportionately higher morbidity and mortality compared to non-Hispanic white individuals, even when malignancies are diagnosed at the same stage,” Alexandra Rzepecki, MD, chief resident at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said during her presentation at the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery annual meeting.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study of electronic medical records to identify 94 patients with skin of color and 130 non-Hispanic white patients with primary basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma resected by Mohs micrographic surgery.
Individuals with skin of color presenting with keratinocyte carcinoma did so at a mean age of 58.5 years, compared with a mean age of 72 years for non-Hispanic white patients and 71 years for Hispanic patients.
Tumors in high-risk locations occurred in 52.4% of the patients with skin of color compared with 43% of white patients. This number, while greater, was not statistically significant.
Additionally, pigmented subtypes of basal cell carcinoma occurred in 33% of the patients with skin of color, compared with only 3% of the white individuals.
Right-side tumors occurred in 90% of Black individuals, compared with 51.2% of non-Hispanic white individuals.
“In side-by-side comparisons, pigmented basal cells were 18 times more likely to occur in skin of color compared to white individuals and more than 15 times more in Hispanics compared to white individuals,” Rzepecki said.
Squamous cell in situ occurred more commonly in skin of color and Hispanic individuals, while invasive squamous cell appeared more frequently in white patents than in those with skin of color.
“Understanding the characteristics of skin malignancies in individuals with skin of color — a growing, at-risk population — is key to developing prevention and treatment strategies to improve outcomes,” Rzepecki said. “Our results are an important addition to the limited literature characterizing skin of color individuals undergoing Mohs for nonmelanoma skin cancer.”