Basal cell carcinoma trends in Thailand: A 10-year retrospective study of demographic, clinical and histopathological features

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common skin cancer with globally increasing incidence. To date, the information regarding BCC in Thailand is limited. Our aim was to evaluate the demographic, clinical, histopathological trends of BCC and other contributing factors. We retrospectively reviewed the demographic, clinical and histological data of all BCC outpatients from January 2009 to December 2018. From 278 BCC patients recruited to this study, most of them (71.6%) were older than 60 years old. The most common histological subtype was nodular BCC (63.3%). A statistically significant association was observed between histological variant and location of the tumor; H and M area were associated with nodular BCC; L area was related to superficial subtype (P<0.001). Misdiagnosis of BCC was observed in 53 cases, mostly as melanocytic nevus (30.2%), and about quarter (26.4%) was made by board-certified dermatologists. Nodular BCC is significantly associated with H and M area, while superficial subtype is related to L location. Quarter of the patients already have large tumors at their first presentation. Misdiagnosis of BCC is not uncommon.