Body site locations of basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and actinic keratosis in patients referred to the Waikato District Health Board teledermoscopy clinic
Kyla Kim
1 * , Ji Won Kim 1 , Isabella Santos 1 , Amanda Oakley 2 3
1 University of Auckland, Department of Medicine, Auckland, New Zealand.
2 University of Auckland, Waikato Clinical Campus, New Zealand.
3 Waikato District Health Board, Department of Dermatology, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Journal of Primary Health Care 14(1) 80-86 https://doi.org/10.1071/HC21115
Published: 13 April 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Introduction: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and actinic keratosis (AK) are usually located on sun-exposed areas of the body.
Aims: Our main aims were to identify the common body site locations of BCC, SCC and AK in patients attending the Waikato District Health Board teledermoscopy clinic, also known as the Waikato Virtual Lesion Clinic, as well as to analyse whether the distribution of location changes with age and sex.
Methods: This is a retrospective study where the body site location of 3272 keratinocytic lesions was determined and analysed in 1864 patients attending the Waikato District Health Board teledermoscopy clinics between 2010 and 2021.
Results: All three types of lesion were most commonly located in the head and neck region (40.9% of BCCs, 38% of SCCs, 83.2% of AKs), followed by 26.8% on the trunk for BCC, 32.3% on the lower extremities for SCC, and 11.6% on the upper extremities for AK.
Discussion: Our findings of body site locations for keratinocytic lesions were consistent with other studies. Patients were commonly diagnosed with multiple keratinocytic lesions.
Keywords: actinic, basal cell, carcinoma, keratinocytes, keratosis, lesion, New Zealand, squamous cell.
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