AGE AND SITE PREVALENCE OF HISTOLOGIC SUBTYPES OF BASAL-CELL CARCINOMAS

Background. Basal cell carcinomas (BCC) are the most frequently diagno sed skin cancers. The relationships between some clinical parameters, such as sex, age, and location of the tumor, and the histologic patter ns play an important role as factors predictive of recurrence and trea tment implications. Methods. A total of 693 patients with BCC, divided according to sex, age, and location of the tumor were studied. The hi stologic patterns considered were nodular, superficial, and morpheifor m BCC and fibroepithelioma. The correlation between clinical and histo logic parameters was analyzed. Results. All histologic patterns consid ered were most commonly represented in the 7th and 8th decades. There were no sex differences. A prevalence of a superficial pattern for sun -unexposed areas and of a nodular pattern for sun-exposed areas was ob served. The morpheiform pattern showed no correlation with any body si te. The fibroepithelioma showed an absolute prevalence for the lumbosa cral region. Conclusions. Age does not seem to be a discriminant or pe rmissive factor for a particular histologic pattern of BCC. The preval ence of some subtypes for a particular body area may be explained on t he basis of local predisposing conditions affecting the histologic dev elopment of the tumor.