Incidental Skin Cancer Detection in a Hospital Department: A Prospective Study

Background and objectives: Skin cancer is a common cause for referral to dermatology, but it may also be an incidental finding during examination of patients referred for other reasons. The objective of the study was to compare the characteristics of skin cancer lesions (squamous skin carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, melanoma) diagnosed at a dermatology department over 1 year between patients referred for suspected skin cancer and those referred for another reason but in whom skin cancer was detected as an incidental finding. Pearson's χ² test was used to compare different study variables between the 2 groups.

Results: Data were collected from 433 patients with a mean age of 72 years; 233 (51.3%) of the patients were female. The most common skin types were Fitzpatrick types II and III. Basal cell carcinoma was the most frequent cancer in all the analyses and accounted for 68.4% of all cancers diagnosed (296/433). Twenty-six percent of the malignant skin tumors were detected incidentally. Statistical analysis revealed that these tumors tended to be located in nonvisible areas and were smaller and of more recent onset than tumors initially suspected to be malignant.

Conclusions: The high rate of skin cancer diagnosed incidentally by dermatologists highlights the need to carry out thorough examinations of patients in order to facilitate early detection and treatment.