Clinical and Histopathologic Observations of Primary Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinomas / 대한피부과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Squamous cell carcinoma(SCC) is the most common skin cancer in Korea and its incidence is increasing. OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to evaluate the clinical and histopathological characteristics of SCC. METHODS: Forty cases of cutaneous SCC slides were retrieved from the files of the surgical pathology division of the National Medical Center. Hematoxylin and eosin stained sections were re-examined microscopically by two dermatologists independently. For the cases of reconfirmed SCC, clinical characteristics including incidence, age and sex distribution, location and underlying conditions and histopathologic grading by Broder's grade system were evaluated. For 3 control cases controls and 17 cases of the SCCs, cytokeratin expression patterns on immunohistochernical staining using monoclonal antithodies MNF 116, RCK 102 and NCL 5D3 were observed. RESULTS: 1. Of 40 specimens, 33 specimens(73.3%) were histologically reconfirmed as true cutaneous SCCs. 2. The most commonly involved age group was the fifth decade of life and the median age when diagnosis was made was 57.3. 24 male patients and 9 female patients were involved and the ratio of male to female was 2.67 1. 3. Most commonly involved sites were face and lower extremities and the incidence of occurrence on sun exposed areas increased in accordance with an increase of the age. 4. Underlying conditions such as burn scars, osteomyelitis or atomic bomb exposure were associated in 455% of SCCs. 5. Histopathologic grading of 33 cases of SCCs by Broder's grade was performed as follows.23 cases(67.7%) of grade I, 8 cases(24.2%) of grade II and 2 cases(6.1%) of grade III. 6. The cytokeratin expressio pattern on immunohistochemical staining for 3 of the control cases and 17 cases of SCCs showed some differences between the highly and poorly differentiated groups of SCCs. CONCLUSION: We evaluated the clinical and histopathological characteristics of primary cutaneous SCCs in the National Medical Center from september 1978 to August 1993.